Playing catch up...

Since arriving back to the US, a lot has happened, but I just haven't blogged at all. What a blogging slacker I am. I am going to attempt a quick catch up and then move on as a more frequent blogger...

I spent the summer in Michigan with family, which was quite enjoyable (other than the fact that I was sick with mono. nearly the whole time). It taught me a lot about rest and relaxation though, but the most important thing that it taught me was how much I didn't want to be away from Adam. We had decided (before leaving Morocco) that we would live apart for a time (me in Michigan, him in Texas) and see where the Lord was leading. After about 24 hours of being back (while I was still in the hospital), we both knew that living apart was NOT where he was leading. We decided quickly that we would reunite in August, he would get my dad's approval for us to get engaged/married, we would visit his family in Texas, and then we would drive to Oregon together. We set the date for our wedding (assuming my dad said yes) and Adam found a position teaching with Americorp at a local high school. Everything went according to plan until three days before we met up in Washington DC in August. We decided that prolonged engagements weren't our thing and moved the wedding up to November 9. We had a great time in DC , met both families (which was great, and my dad gave his permission), and drove for three long days from Texas to Oregon. Upon arriving here, we set up "our" place, and both started work.

After Adam's first day of work, we went out for dinner, to Starbucks, and for a walk (which is where we got officially engaged). It was low key and perfect. He gave me a beautiful ring and we started officially planning the wedding. We had about 10 weeks at that point before the big day. We were both working full time, plus tutoring two nights per week for a GED program and managed to pull it all together. We secured the venue, made and sent out invitations, planned the ceremony, reception, and honeymoon, and tried to study up on marriage (if that's possible). It was a perfect length of time for being engaged and planning a wedding, I can't image having been engaged any longer.

The wedding day arrived and everything went (almost) exactly as planned. At 4:00 I walked down the isle, married my best friend, and became Kattie Normand. So many people came in to town to celebrate with us, it was awesome. About half the attendees were people we met while working in North Africa. It was such a blessing to see them all and connect family and friends (many) for the first time. The whole thing went so quickly that before I knew we had changed out of wedding clothing and into comfortable car wear for our three hour drive.

This is getting long...I'm wrapping it up...

The honeymoon was excellent, we stayed in a little cabin located just next to an amazing bed and breakfast. There were beautiful mountains and trees everywhere, and it was so quiet (except the door flying open in the middle of the night due to a wind storm). We've been married for almost three weeks already, and so far it's been great. I can't wait to see how the Lord is going to grow, stretch, and change us in the years to come. I can't wait to have more adventures together. And, I can't wait to look across the table and see an old wrinkled up man and think, "man, I love that guy."

Oh, and somewhere in the middle of our wedding week, Adam was offered a full-time teaching position at a different local high school that had lost a math teacher. We decided, on our honeymoon, to take the job. So, just after arriving back, he started a new job teaching four geometry classes and two pre-calc. classes. So far, so good.

Ok, I'm done now...
(possibly pictures to follow...)