#wagners

Jesus, I can’t keep up with all the breaking news….

This is a very big deal. I don’t take liveuamap lightly. If Russians pull back from luhansk, it could be a matter of days before ukrainian forces overrun russian frontlines.

Well! Sam has certainly surprised our family. Right after Stephen's graduation, he called us from his station in Selvadorada to give us some incredibly surprising news: he had gotten engaged!

He met Maria Ester (Maite) Flores at an ISCS-organized church event for the soldiers on base. She volunteered, they met over (non-alcoholic!) punch, and the rest was history! And by "history," I mean they began getting to know one another through a chaste, respectful, special friendship. Though not without some effort on Sam’s part, according to him! My boy is so persistent—apparently he had to ask four times before Maite would give him her phone number. He was just so bowled over by her beautiful countenance that he couldn’t give up.

Praise God, Maite's family are proper Christians, so Sam didn't get mixed up in any funny business with those yet to receive His Word or those who are interpreting His Word incorrectly. (Though I have to say, some of the dishes Sam described eating at her family's home sounded pretty strange to me! Definitely not what we Christians over here eat.) Instead, the lovebirds had a whirlwind courtship under the watchful eye of her father. Sam was so caught up in the romance of it all that he forgot to tell his poor Mom and Dad at home until he had already proposed! But I can't blame him for being a little irresponsible. He's a man, and men can lose their heads sometimes when around beautiful young women! I'm just relieved that my son has grown up into a strong, masculine young man, unlike certain other young men in our church family.

"Losing his head" is a pretty apt phrase, I must say! In the same conversation, Sam announced his intent to bring Maite back to Brindleton Bay. He wanted to marry her "as soon as possible." What a romantic! We were already expecting him home within a few weeks for his transition into reserve duty, but we never thought we'd have a wedding as well as a homecoming to plan! Even so, out of all my children, of course it was Sam who stirred up this surprise. Ever since he attended Camp FIGHT he’s been incredibly driven. He knows what he wants, and as he put it during our phone call, what he wanted was “to marry her before someone else snatches her up”! Isn’t he sweet?

Thankfully us Wagners were able to throw together a lovely, intimate ceremony just in time for their arrival. Christians tend to get married fast, but this has got to our chuch's quickest wedding yet! (Although it wasn't held at our church; for ease, we rented out a local restaurant instead.) Seeing another one of my sons united with his helpmeet was such an emotional experience! Of course our family isn't perfect but at least Sam has insisted on a traditional marriage. (With Maite in agreement, of course.) He'll be the leader of the family, having final say on all decisions, and she'll follow his guidance. All accordiong to the way the Lord designed Holy Matrimony for His children!

After the wedding they took a brief honeymoon: camping in Granite Falls! I don't think Maite is much of an outdoors person, but Sam loooooves camping and just had to show her what it's all about.

wagnerfamily Happy birthday to the ANGEL of the Wagner family: Stella! This girl...I am such a lucky mom to have a daughter who is so beautiful and Godly! She takes such good care of herself and always does the right thing, whether it's at home, at church, or in the world. Stella has been the most helpful soul since the moment she could walk. Every time I look at her she's comforting a younger sibling, or tidying some room, or filling our home with beautiful music. Just recently, she was kind enough to be the "date" of a boy from our church's youth group who asked her to the quarterly social. Of course, she's far too young for a real courtship, but since it was in a group setting, Colin and I encouraged her to go in order to avoid hurting the young man's feelings. Sweet Stella was so concerned when we brought up how ashamed he might be if he were rejected that she immediately agreed to attend with him! Isn't she such a doll? She was baptized youngest out of all her siblings, and looking at her now, that's no surprise! What a credit to our family she is. Happy birthday with love from Mom/Sophia!

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Transcript below the cut

Today I led Charlotte and some of my teens in an activity designed to get them thinking about their future spouses! Since Sienna already has a special friend in Michael from Willow Creek and Simon in Mackenzie Robinson, they were excused. The rest of us had a wonderful evening that centered the sanctity of marriage!

Excerpts from devotional activity led by Sophia Wagner and completed by several Wagner children, August 2051:

Caleb:

Nice

Christian

Pretty

Nice

Good at cooking and stuff

Charlotte:

If I get married, I would want my husband to still be my friend. I don’t want him to be just a stranger I live with. I’d like someone who never disappears and never accosts me with unwelcome surprises. We’ll be the kind of married couple that does things together, like weekly date night. And he’ll help me clean up after coffee & cake hour on Sundays. I won’t be like Sadie, fawning over someone as incompetent as her four-year-old. I won’t submit to a husband who can’t even lead. He definitely won’t be from Brindleton, because I’m pretty sure I know all of the single Christian men my age here and they’re all such…

Catherine:

La la la la abcefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz [in cursive] the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog [end cursive/resume print] I DON’T KNOW but he better be handsome :)

Cierra Joy:

I pray that my future husband is a strong man of God who provides for our family and is always pointing us back to Jesus. I would also like a husband who is open to any blessings the Lord gives us and willing to properly discipline them when needed. It would be really nice if his name started with C or J so we could name our kids all one letter and then share initials as a family, but I know the other things are more important. I’m prayerful that…

Stella:

mrs.sadie.nicholson🔒 No love like this one 🥹🩷👶🏻🎀

Sylvie Heather Nicholson, born 4:45 yesterday morning. She is the most precious little soul and the biggest blessing of mine and Colby's lives. God is so good!

heathernich🔒 Such an honor🩷

I'm the mother of yet another engaged young woman! Milo took a group of us out to the Deadgrass Isle Museum for their special New Year's Day event and--with prior approval from Colin and I, of course--got down on one knee and asked Cadence to be his wife! The ring was gorgeous, and she had the biggest smile on her face as she said yes.

With a courtship of almost a year and a half, it's been a long time coming! Normally the ISCS advises courtships of under a year in order to preserve the purity of the young people involved, but since Cadence and Milo did long distance, they had permission from both sets of parents to extend the timeline a little--especially on our end, since the expectation is for Cadence to move over a thousand miles away to join the Russos in Willow Creek. Aside from Sam, who is temporarily stationed in Selvadorada, Cadence will be the child living farthest from us. We'll all miss her terribly, but we are comforted that she will be "leaving and cleaving" to a man who loves and respects her and, most importantly, the Lord.