It’s Monday morning, so I’ll post something full with love and promise. I hope you enjoy these new photographs of Andrew and Alicia.

A few days ago our soon to be daughter shared a few of the “official” engagement pictures. They were taken in Kiev when Andrew took his most recent weekend flight to the Ukraine.

Alicia’s friend, Olha Prytula, did some excellent work with the shoot. She captured the breezy sense of joy and assurance that’s turned out to be Andrew and Alicia’s definitive attribution; portraits of joy, promise and confident love.

GENUINE: I’ve made a serious study of people over the past few years, in a wide range of circumstances. As an observer and a writer I have learned a lot about how people are, how they communicate, what is just below the surface, how genuine they are – or otherwise, and how the way they present themselves lines up with who they really are.

And I have to confess, I’ve seldom seen two young people as authentic, winsome, and disarming as Andrew and Alicia are when they’re together. These pictures capture that fact remarkably well.

PRAYER: So my constant prayer, along with Rebekah’s, is one of thanksgiving and wonder. Parenting is a long and often stressful journey, full with conflicting emotions and so many dreams of what life might be like if everything goes as planned.

But we found out many years ago that our carefully constructed plans are pretty-much “out the window” the moment they are articulated. But God’s purposes are so much more imaginative, and bold, and wonderful, and so we are immeasurably thankful that we are not in control in all those ways we thought we wanted to be.

These pictures are a visual illustration of two lives, Andrew’s and Alicia’s, that have been hungry to know God more deeply and to follow Jesus more closely. We are confident that it is Providence that has brought them together. We are equally confident that Grace of will continue to lead them.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3)

Like I said, we are so grateful – DEREK