Have you ever met someone that you just clicked with?  Someone that you spend such little time with that it makes you sad you can’t see them more?  That’s what Chris and Kadie are like for us.  I met them one wedding weekend last year on our whirlwind Mission: Michigan trip for another friend’s wedding and then they came down for our wedding last fall, but we all know how much of a whirlwind that was!  So, when they said they’d be coming down to SC for a week, I tried my hardest not to jump out of my skin.  Chris called several weeks before they were going to be heading down and as Ben put him on speaker phone, we talked about logistics and what was going on in their lives.  Chris is a youth pastor right now so we talked about their ministry some and how they felt like God was preparing them for something.

Chris and Kadie were expecting so I told them I’d love to do a maternity session while they were here in addition to all of the places we were going to eat and all of the eucker and nertz we were going to play.  And then on September 18, we found out that Kadie had gone into pre-term labor at 22 weeks.  It seemed surreal. And they were so far away.  I still barely know these friends, but Ben has known them for a long time… they are just special people that we love dearly.  Which only made the pain more real when we found out they had lost their baby girl.  It was the hardest day of their lives and we felt it all the way down from Michigan.

But, they were able to hold their baby girl, Briar Alaethia, for a beautiful 105 minutes before God took her home to heaven.  Chris and Kadie weren’t able to get through this on their own because they don’t have the strength to.  It wasn’t one of those things where “God won’t give them more than they can handle” because there’s no way they could handle this.  God has held them up the entire time.  His strength is always enough and they know that even in this, He had His reasons, He is still good, and His love is still great.  Chris and Kadie, you guys are such an encouragement to us and we’re thankful for you and this story God has given to you.

We weren’t sure if they were still going to be able to make it down to SC, but they did and it’s been such a fun week!  If ever they needed a vacation, it was now.  They’re heading home (too) soon, but it just means we’ll have to find a way to make it up to Michigan sometime soon.  You guys, we’ve had a blast hanging out.  We love you guys!

We headed up the mountain to Asheville on Saturday and since there was an hour and a half wait at Tupelo Honey Cafe, we went across the street for some Mediterranean apps.

Internet, this is Chris and Kadie.  Are they not the cutest??

And well, you know us :-)

We finally got to sit down here… already full.  But you better believe we still ate!  And then we wandered around to walk everything off.

To say I love the quirkiness of Asheville would be a drastic understatement.

Yes, that’s a UNC basketball, a knife and a hatchet… that he’s juggling.

I wish I could remember the name of these guys.  The girl on the far right was also tap dancing!

We didn’t do a full-out session, but I still wanted to grab some pictures of these two.  I mean, look at them!  Who wouldn’t want to photograph them??

They quickly learned that alleys and random spots are good for shots :-)

We drove down to Hendersonville to do some more wandering… and get some more pictures of these two!

They have some great laughter :-)

In honor of their baby girl, they got tattoos on their wrists. Kadie has Briar’s birthdate and her left foot, and Chris has her name and her right foot.

And this is how big her feet actually were at 18 weeks premature.  Teeny tiny…

 These bears are all over Hendersonville… and the sign on the right might not match with the flag, but I promise there was an American flag behind it!

The coffee shop we ended our day in had coffee bags lining the ceiling.  Possibly the coolest coffee shop idea ever.

Here’s to a fabulous Wednesday!