As a mom, you pray for your daughter in so many areas of her life.

You pray for her heart that she is kind and thoughtful and discerning and adventurous and grateful and fun; you pray she loves the Lord all of her days and that she knows she is loved by God and her family and friends; and you pray she makes excellent friends and finds a place in community and you pray she loves her family and friends and neighbors, and you pray she appreciates the outdoors and nature and simplicity and sports and music and art, and you pray she finds her calling and her ministry and career and gifting and ways to help others, that she follows after her dreams.

You also pray for her future husband, that she would meet someone who loves God and loves her and loves our family and loves adventure, and then -- after you’ve talked to her about boys and family and married life and after she’s dated a bit and gone to dances and dinners and hikes with boys — she says to you, before she leaves for college at age 18, that “I’m not getting married till I’m 30, if ever. . .”

And, you of course appreciate her independence and that she is going after her dreams and that she is becoming who she wants to be and who she is called to be. And you want her to know that she is loved and that she matters in this world and that her voice be heard and that she makes her mark in the world, no matter what.

And you tell her she can wait till she is 30 to get married, if ever, and she doesn't have to get married at all, if that is her calling; but then. . .

she meets this young man in 2008 when she is 18 at Bodenseehof Bible Schoo l in Germany and the young man is 20 and that young man visited us the following summer in 2009, and he hung out with us for 3-weeks and he joined our family on a two-week road trip to Yellowstone Park and he sat in our cramped van made for 8 and we filled every nook and cranny of that van with which we pulled our 1970s green tent trailer, and that young man sat between my daughter who is my oldest child and only daughter and my youngest child and fourth son, and that young man laughed and hiked and camped and cooked and cleaned and fit right in with my five kids. . .

And four years later that young man and my only daughter married in a ceremony in a 125 year old chapel at an old Catholic mission and they honeymooned in Belize. And they had another ceremony in Germany with all his German relatives and friends and we all got to be there for that as well.

They have traveled to other parts of the world individually and together and they have a contest goingregarding who has been to more countries, and we traveled to Africa to meet them when they were living there for six months while my daughter was working on her minor in Africa studies as she was going after her dreams. And they now have a baby girl and they are expecting their second child, a son, at the end of April.

And that husband that my daughter married, and that I prayed for years ago, is such a neat person; he is an amazing son-in-law, and I could not have dreamed up a nicer, neater, more wonderful down-to-earth, genuine individual than he is. But, God of course could.

He’s adventuresome and fun and thoughtful and humble and driven and loving and smart, and he loves the Lord and he adores my daughter and he’s a fantastic father to their baby girl and he loves our family and fits right in like he’s my fifth son! Just like all I prayed for.

And, we are so very thankful and proud of him that he earned a position as a pediatric resident in the United States at a hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, so now he will be able to practice medicine in the United States! Last June before they moved from Germany to Hawaii, we hosted a little Luau gathering for a few of their friends and family to celebrate the achievement and to send them off on their way to Paradise, where he’s been a pediatric resident since last June. He rides his bike to work every day and his hours are 12-14 hours a day, 6 days a week and when he gets home from work he is there for his family and it will continue to be long hours these three years and they are just very grateful for this opportunity to be in the States.

And we of course are also thrilled that they have the opportunity to live closer to us, because as my Rachel pointed out, basically the past 9 ½ years she has lived in Germany, so far away from her four baby brothers whom she adores.

So, whether my daughter or any of my kids are planning on getting married or not doesn't matter; what matters to me is that they go after their dreams, that they find their calling, that they are kind and thoughtful and humble and considerate human beings ,and that they love God and others and that they are living their dreams.

Those prayers are worth praying and seeing answered.

The post I’m not getting married till I’m 30, if ever. . . but then she meets him appeared first on Cornelia Becker Seigneur.