Thanking the Lord for His blessings...

God has blessed Chad & me so graciously with the wonderful families in which He sovereignly placed us. We were both given the privilege of growing up in Christian homes and we do not ever want to take that for granted. I'm posting a few pictures of each of our families.

For those of you who don't know, God took Chad's mom home to be with Him four years ago. Although I very much wish I could've met her because I've only heard wonderful things about her, I know that God has a divine purpose in all things, and I just look forward to the day when we'll be together in heaven for eternity. A little over 2 years ago, Chad's Dad married a sweet lady, Rachel, who also lost her spouse to an illness. She has been so gracious and a helpful addition to the Vradenburgh family. Chad's dad is a pastor at the church we attend here in Raleigh, and Rachel has been able to be a blessing to him in fulfilling the role as a pastor's wife. She has a daughter named Victoria who is adjusting to having quite a few new siblings now! She is a senior and will be graduating in May and heading off to Bob Jones in the fall.

There were 3 weddings in the year 2007 for the Vradenburgh's: 1-1-07--Chase & Miranda started the year off with a surprise wedding (they got married while he was home on a leave from serving in Iraq). 2-14-07--During Christmas break Cheyenne & Wes announced that they would be married on Valentine's Day in Hawaii where they live. 7-7-07--and finally bringing up the rear, although ours was the one planned for the longest time, Chad & I were married this past summer. Chelsea, the "baby" of the family is working on finishing up her schooling, and she is planning to go into Missions.

As for my family, I'm the oldest of 6 children, so I'm the first to branch off on my own, but Tim is following closely behind because he & Anna Ray are getting married this summer, 8-9-08. Bethany will be graduating from high school this May and she's planning on going to Northland in the fall. My brother, Byron is a sophomore in highschool, my youngest brother, Stewart is in 8th grade, and Natalie the "baby" of our family is in 6th grade and keeping my parents young! My parents are in full time Christian work at Greenville Christian Academy--my dad was principal all through my elementary & high school years. I'm so thankful for my sweet family & I'm glad that I don't live too far away from them now. God has been so good to us & we're thankful for his continual blessings on our lives!

Updating.....Our 1st Christmas

Because I'm so behind the times, this post is definitely going to be out of order, but I thought it would be nice to post a few pictures of how our apartment looked for our 1st Christmas together as a happily married couple!

The Christmas Ornament Chad gave me when we were engaged in 2006

The Christmas ornament Chad gave me for our 1st married Christmas 2007

Finally.....a new post!

It is awful that it has been since October since I've posted anything on our blog. A lot has happened and to be honest, it is kind of overwhelming to think about catching up, but I do want to post a few pictures from on of our most recent endeavors. Some people have heard about this, and have asked for pictures but I have to explain the whole story.
Because Chad has always talked about having a dog once we moved into a house, I knew that eventually this would become a reality, although I didn't know quite how soon. A few weeks ago, his desire for a bloodhound puppy became even stronger, so he decided to do a little shopping online to see what he could find. So, he came to my work one afternoon and told me that he wanted to go look at something that evening. I quickly figured out what that something was, so we went and saw 4 adorable 6-week old bloodhound puppies. Well, that following Saturday one of them became ours. We named him "Jed" He was so cute and playful, although the trips up and down the stairs from our 3rd floor apartment for potty-training purposes weren't always enjoyable. We knew that it would be difficult to crate train him with us being away quite a bit, but we were willing to do our best. After a few days of having him with us, we realized for both our sake and his, it would be best to find another home for him. With our work schedules and Chad trying to finish his schooling as well as going through the process of finding and buying a house we felt like we couldn't spend the time we needed to train him the right way. It was hard to come to that conclusion because we quickly became attached to him, but we were able to sell him very soon after we posted the ad and we feel like he's in a good home. Eventually, after we have a yard for him to claim as his own, we want to get another Jed just like the first one, because he was so fun, and a great puppy!

I'm posting some pictures of him because some people have asked and also because he was so adorable--when I look at the pictures I miss him and wish we still had him. Isn't he the cutest puppy you've ever seen?!?