Honeymoon Photos!

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Our beautiful wedding cake!

Our beautiful wedding cake!, originally uploaded by Dwynard.

I'm working on getting all the kinks ironed out... and Flickr is not being entirely cooperative today!... but here is a sight to find pictures from our wedding weekend extravaganza - and add some of your own if you'd like! (Please, only add photos related to our wedding! :)). Enjoy - I hope (if Flickr cooperates) - and let me know if you have any questions.

We're getting married!

We'll be updating this blog... well, I'd say regularly, but I don't want to make promises I can't keep! - periodically! More stories (for those who love stories) of how we got from there to here, and after the wedding - pictures. Oh, and key information of course. Look at the links to the left or the posts below to see what's new.

So check back... periodically... and please, let us know if there's something we need to add!

The night we got engaged...

December 1st, Naperville, Illinois

Brief updates - 9 days to go!

Hello friends -

The count down has REALLY begun now (I think we're under 10 days!) and Dan and I are both pretty excited for next weekend to arrive. I thought I'd pass on some directions from Chicago to Yekaterinburg - where Dan and I will spend 6 weeks this summer (no, we're not really including that as part of the honeymoon... though it is sort of exotic I suppose!). These are compliments of Google Maps, which I personally find much more helpful (and amusing) than MapQuest. I wish they'd pay me to say that, but oh well.

Dan is still intending to post about "the rest of the story"... we'll try to do that VERY soon :) In the meantime, here are just a few pictures to keep you occupied. More will be posted very soon on a site-to-be-revealed. I'll let you know.

We can't wait to see lots of you next week!

Love, Lucy (& Dan)


These two are from the shower Dan's family threw us. The second is of our moms - and mine will not be happy that I'm posting this picture with that expression on her face. But oh well.


























Making invitations...

And another bridal shower (the hat was not my choice... but don't I pull it off well?!):

How We Met

As requested - here is the story of how Dan and I met. (Told, obviously, from Lucy's point-of-view; I will do my best to incorporate Dan's point-of-view, but if you notice a certain slant... well, he can write a rebuttal if he so wishes.)

Dan doesn't actually remember the first time we met - but perhaps that's just as well because my first impressions of him weren't... well, they weren't what they are now. We met in 1999 in Madison, Wisconsin while I was going through new staff training with InterVarsity and Dan was back for the summer from Russia up to do some InterVarsity business. My only memory is of riding somewhere in a car together and feeling as if this was a loud, American... hmmm, know-it-all. Harsh, I know (I can hear the comments of my family now... something about a pot and a kettle...). I don't remember the second time we met, which was a few months later in Warsaw, Poland for the IFES-Eurasia new team members orientation. In my defense, I had just gotten off a trans-Atlantic flight and was a little disoriented. Dan, however, remembers a bus ride in which I apparently had a conversation with one of the British supervisors who was asking me about my Duke experience and postmodern literary theory or something of that nature.

In any case, the long and short of it is that Dan and I spent a week together in Poland in August of 1999, where I saw for the first time just how competitive at games he was and he learned that I could talk about postmodern literary theory even when suffering jet lag. And yet we became friends. We spent subsequent summer and winter conferences together, as we worked for sister student movement in Eurasia, and gradually got to know one another well enough to email and call in-between times... though never very frequently. In 2001-02 we served together on a committee to develop the curriculum for a new staff training institute in Eurasia, which I suppose solidified our by-then fairly firm friendship. We both ended up back in the US in 2003, both somewhat unexpectedly, and started seeing more of each other (meaning our twice-a-year meetings increased to, oh, four-times-a-year meetings!), making a point whenever he was in Madison or I was in Chicago of having dinner just to reminisce about the Russian-speaking world and assure one another that we weren't totally mad for feeling disoriented here in America. And for a long while it appeared that that would be the extent of our relationship, until one fateful night which Dan will have to tell you about sometime... perhaps in this blog, if I can twist his arm.

Introductions

Introducing Lucy... I have worked for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for almost 8 years. My first job was as a Link staff in Belarus, helping establish the Christian student movement there. For the last four years I've worked on the Urbana Convention, a large student missions conference InterVarsity puts on every three years. I'm a Duke grad (go Blue Devils!), with a degree in English and Religion - but I also dabbled in philosophy & sociology and spent a whole lot of time being a student leader for IV. I love books, talking about books, talking in general, beating Dan at games (doesn't happen very often... but I'm just going easy on him till he can't run away), learning new things, the magic of Microsoft Excel, theology & missiology, speaking in Russian, making new friends, thinking about ethics, being a big sister - and a whole host of other things. I hate injustice, being out of control and heights (which also means I'm not fond of flying).

Introducing Dan... I was born and raised in the Chicago area. I graduated from Wheaton College in 1992 with degrees in Biblical Studies (BA) and Intercultural Studies (MA). As a 20-year-old, I got my first taste for cross cultural living during a summer in Austria working for a ministry to Eastern European refugees. In 1992 I moved to Nizhny Novgorod, Russia to help pioneer the IFES student work there and stayed in Russia until 2003. Now I’m the teaching pastor at Alleluia! Lutheran where I goof off and play foose ball with Pastor Mark all day long (just checking to see if you’re reading!). I like to read – especially science fiction and mystery novels, play chess (though I don’t do that very often anymore because I’m so busy!), and working Sudoku puzzles. I love studying the Bible with people – I live for moments when I can talk about the Bible! I also LOVE strategy games/board games.

Directions to the church

From Madison, Wisconsin:
Take I-39/I-90 South to Rockford.
Follow I-39 South to I-88.
Take I-88 East towards Chicago.
Take the IL-59 exit and turn right on IL-59.
Follow 59 south about 7.5 miles to 103rd Street.
Turn left on 103rd Street.
103rd Street ends at Book Road.
The church is on the corner of Book and 103rd Street.

From O’Hare airport:
Take I-294 South approximately 10 miles to I-88 West.
Take I-88 10 miles; exit at IL-59.
Follow 59 south about 7.5 miles to 103rd Street.
Turn left on 103rd Street.
103rd Street ends at Book Road.
The church is on the corner of Book and 103rd Street.

From Midway airport:
Go north on S. Cicero Ave. about 1.8 miles.
Turn left to go south on I-55 approximately 23 miles.
Take exit 263 – Weber Rd. Turn right on Weber Road.
After about 2 miles, turn left on 111th St. / Hassert Blvd.
After about 2.5 miles, turn right on Book Rd.
The church is on the corner of Book and 103rd Street.

From the Staybridge Suites:
Take IL-59 south to 103rd Street.
Turn left on 103rd Street.
103rd Street ends at Book Road.
The church is on the corner of Book and 103rd Street.

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