A Phone Call for Permission

My mom, my husband, and I all arrived in Arizona the Wednesday before my wedding. The sun was shining and the weather was absolutely beautiful. The forecast for my wedding day was not looking as promising. Rain storms from California were predicted to drench Arizona that Saturday. 

By Thursday, my mom and I were confident that we would be utilizing the venue's rainy day contingency plan. Although I was a little disappointed that I was not going to get the outdoor desert wedding I had dreamed about, I decided to laugh at the absurdity of the situation instead.

I picked a desert for an outdoor destination wedding.

The storm was threatening to roll in right before the start of the ceremony. Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography. 2014.

The day before the wedding had perfectly sunny and beautiful weather.

Beautifully blue skies with just the perfect amount of cloud cover. February 2014.

The day of the wedding had monsoon rains.

The day after the wedding had perfectly sunny and beautiful weather.

HOW can you not laugh at the absurdity of that?

The monsoon rain meant that we could get no photos of just my husband and I on the day of the wedding. When she realized the weather forecast, our amazing wedding photographer Rebekah Sampson suggested we schedule a "day after" shoot so that my husband and I could still have photos together. I'm so thankful my dress was comfortable and my wedding flowers were paper considering I would have to don the same outfit again! Rebekah was willing to meet us at our resort, but she recommended that my mom call the resort first and receive permission to have professional photographs taken on the property, especially because our wedding was not held at their venue.

My mom made the call while I was in the car with her. She explained that we were from out of state, but we used to live in Arizona. She mentioned how my dream wedding was an outdoor wedding in the desert. She then chuckled while she was on the phone and pointed out that the weather was refusing to cooperate. We were going to be unable to have any outdoor pictures taken on the day of our ceremony. But she also mentioned our photographer was willing to hold another session the day after, when the forecast was promised to be sunny and beautiful.

She also expressed how I was far from the normal bride. She spoke of how my Adrenal Insufficiency almost killed me April of 2013. But it didn't. She passionately recalled how I was unable to live independently for two months as she had to move in with me until I regained my strength. We had no idea how long it would take me to recover. Yet here we were, eleven months later, and I was about to marry one of my closest friends and then travel across the world to move to Malaysia for a six month international work assignment.

The resort happily granted permission to have professional photographs taken at their location. They were thrilled to be a part of such an amazing story.

After my mom hung up the phone, she apologized to me. She was sharing my story, my medical journey, without my explicit permission. She asked if that was ok for her to disclose my medical journey to strangers. I told her in this situation it was ok. But it was a little surreal to listen to her tell others.

I did almost die on April 19th, 2013.

Every now and then, that fact still serves as a pretty severe reality check.

Yet here I was, March of 2014, preparing to marry my running buddy and then immediately move to Malaysia to start an entirely new chapter in this adventure called life. The scariest day in my life paved the way for some of the most amazing blessings in my life.

I was Clearly Alive, and so clearly blessed.