Wilder Wedding // Beulah Baptist Church // Sterrett, Al

I met Nadia and Chris when I was around 14. They were your perfect 'young, happy, American-Dream, two kids' kind of couple. They actually hosted my age group of girls (they were very brave) at their home for a Disciple Now weekend at our church. It wasn't until several years later that I learned they had gotten a divorce. The past few years, I've been blessed enough to reconnect with Nadia, and she has become a wonderful friend that I just love to death :) Words can't describe what it's been like watching this family's love story come together... 

Chris and Nadia (with their two kids, Chloe and Parker) were RE-MARRIED this past November in the church that she grew up in.. and since Nadia is such an incredible writer, her own words will be much more beautiful than mine :)

"I am getting married tomorrow. 

Again. 

Re-married. 

And to be honest, it’s rendering me speechless. I am in bewildered awe of what the Lord has done and the last few weeks have left me a little bit undone trying to take it in. It’s been almost fourteen years since we stood at the altar and established a covenant. It is a covenant that the Lord remained faithful to, even in the midst of my outright faithlessness and unfaithfulness. I can’t wrap my brain – or my heart – around that kind of faithfulness. This kind of love. This kind of joy. Oh, how He loves us. Even in spite of us. Regardless of what we have done or who we have been. Regardless of what kind of mess we have made in our own lives or in the lives of others, He is faithful. He will do what He says He will do, even when we have done nothing to do deserve it.

Even when we have done everything in our power to un-deserve it…

In the darkest, most broken moments of my life, He would whisper His promises of restoration and redemption to me. So much like a father, gently urging his child to trust him. And so much like a child, I’d try and fail. Time and time again. I’d make a mess of my life over and over and over again and He remained steadfast. Unchanging. It was a tattered and torn journey, this path from divorce to reconciliation.

To look back, I can see His sovereign grace guiding every step – and yes, every misstep. Ultimately guiding me home.

People have asked me what it’s like to fall in love all over again. I tell them that it’s really much more like how I imagine one would feel after being lost and wandering in the wilderness for years, then being found and brought home. Everything about being home would feel both new and familiar, routine and extraordinary, and underneath it all – a constant, nearly overwhelming gratefulness that you were found and a profound, life altering gratitude for your home.

I am home." 

To read more from Nadia, you can visit her website here.