Yes to the Dress

My dear long-time friend, Amy, and my dear "almost daughter" Haley have been here for the past few days.

She recently returned from Gull Lake Ministries in Michigan, where she's been working this summer, to Slovakia where her parents are serving with JV.

This is the first time for all of us to see Haley since she said "Yes" to Caleb's proposal! Imagine the "oohs and ahhs" as we saw her ring for the first time, and got to be in her presence and soak in the fact that we are now, nearly, family!

But this wasn't just a regular visit. There was some serious shopping to be done.

For THIS!

Just so you know! None of the dresses in this photo are the one that Haley chose.

That's not a shop in Czech. Nor is it in Slovakia. In those countries where we live, the tradition is for the bride to rent her wedding gown. Thus there are not a lot of wedding gowns for sale, which of course is our American tradition: to buy your wedding dress.

However, in Poland it's a different situation!

So off we went to Katowice (Haley's first visit ever to Poland!) to meet up with another dear friend, Laura Hash, who was our official, and extraordinaire, wedding dress salon guide and translator!

If this wasn't a perfect girl day, I don't know what is! What absolute joy, bliss, happiness, and delight to share in this day as Haley tried on gowns in search of THE wedding dress to meet her groom in next May.

We walked the streets of Katowice all day, in 100 degree weather, in search of that dress!

And finally, in the afternoon, after trying on the most wedding dresses of any store, the clerk brought out one last dress for Haley to try on.

She literally sparkled! It was the tried and true saying of, 'You just know when you know!' coming true right in front of our eyes.

So...she said "Yes" to the dress!!!

The fitting was done by this sweet lady and her colleague. They now send off the order for a dress to be made by their seamstresses.

JUST FOR HALEY!

She'll pick it up when she's back to Slovakia for Christmas.

And with that, we said goodbye to Katowice's beautiful wedding dress salons, thankful that the Lord answered our prayers for one that was meant for Haley. And Caleb!

You'll have to stay tuned to next May for the big reveal.

No details until then!