Adventures of Amy and Momoh

In just over 2 weeks we are walking down the aisle as 40-something “singles” and starting our married life. It’s happening, people! It’s hard to believe how far we have come. 20 years since we were the kids who talked and dreamed about a wedding day and a life together. I wonder often about those kids – how they would have done, what things would be different, where they would be now… Of course, it’s a necessarily imperfect counterfactual and we can never know the answer to those questions, but it sure is fun to wonder.

We talk every once in a while about what it would have been like if things didn’t end between us. Would his mom have loved me? Where would we be living? How many kids would we have and how old would they be? While I can’t hold on to the past and what might have been, I feel like when we talk about these questions it is just like when we were kids… Dreaming of things – past, future, or present – and thinking about the fun possibilities we have together.

Honestly, as we get closer to the wedding, I realize that the real beauty of the last 20 years is in what we accomplished independently and how those roads led us back to each other. Momoh has wonderful family, friends, and clients who love him. He has an incredible community and he seems to know *everyone*. He has a network of amazing people in Brooklyn Park and throughout the Twin Cities area. He also, of course, has a beautiful church family who is going to miss him dearly when he moves to Wyoming. A family who has cherished him for a decade. A church family who embraced me from the first time I set foot in that beautiful sanctuary. People who I have come to love as part of my family, too, that I know I can count on to take care of him when I’m 1000 miles away. They are incredible, humble, loving, and kind. Thank you so much, people of Immanuel, for being a family to my husband-to-be. We will absolutely be back to visit you, I promise.

Today is a huge milestone for me, too. As we close in on the wedding, I accomplished a task that I wasn’t (honestly) sure was possible. Dr. Peterson, as Momoh calls me when I’m working my brains away, completed her first federal grant and it is now moving through the internal system. The deadline? June 17. Why not go for it? The version of Amy that thought having two major life events line up within 3 days of each other was a good plan was… well, maybe a little overly ambitious. But, I set the goal to be done with the grant by June 3 and I really, honestly, truly hit that goal. I’m proud of myself for getting it done. Now? Now I have a million and one other things to do, but I’m ready to tackle them without the weight of the grant on my shoulders.

Sweet 16. You are so sweet. 16 days until a lifetime together – no parole. 🙂

Leaving you today with a picture of us from the first weekend we spent together in 18 years. This was shortly after I sang 3 songs at Immanuel for the first time as part of Momoh’s special music community. I thought we were singing ONE song until about 12 hours before the service… He tricked me a bit, maybe, but we sang together once and we never looked back. ❤

-xo- Amy