about the ring, and a few other things

Hi everyone --- first, I just want to thank you SO much for your sweet comments and your emails of encouragement....I feel so so so blessed by you. Wow, thank you. :) I will try to respond to each of you personally very soon...thanks for your patience as I am battling somewhat spotty internet and trying to catch up with work (Bear left today...so it is back to work for me!).



I forgot to tell you more about the ring (photo above)!! (Jen D and Chris B, thanks for the first reminders...just what I would expect from stellar wedding photographers!).

After we talked about it, a ways back, Bear and I had decided that a diamond alternative was the right thing for us, and an aquamarine turned out to be our stone of choice. The significance of an aquamarine is partly geographical (it's a popular and precious stone in the country where Bear works), partly financial (it's affordable while still being beautiful) and partly symbolic (an aquamarine symbolizes faithfulness, courage and friendship, three qualities we pray characterize our marriage and future life together).

The symbolic meaning of the color blue also has a Biblical meaning symbolizing heavenly grace...something that we have been given over-abundantly, can never do without, and know we need lots of!

And finally, the aquamarine is named from "aqua marina," which means "sea water," and in folklore the aquamarine was a symbol of security and safety during travel (across the seas). So even though we don't travel BY sea today, the significance was still, well, kind of appropriate, we thought, for overseas travel.

The band itself was custom-made in the US (isn't it pretty? wow!) and it actually crossed the Atlantic twice (because of re-sizing) before it was tucked in a pouch around Bear's neck and made the journey into Africa. This ring should have frequent flyer miles attached! (If you happen to be reading this and you were a ring courier along any part of the way...thank you so much!). The stone too saw some mileage; it was mined in Bear's country and then shipped across the border for polishing before coming back, only to be shipped off to the US for ring completion.

So, that's the ring story. :) I have some traditional Rwandan marriage-related conversation that you might find to be interesting, but that will also have to wait for another post. For instance, engagements don't happen here the same way they do in the West, so when I tell Rwandans that "I got engaged" this week they aren't nearly as excited as westerners are. Anyhow, more on that later.

Again, I do regret that we haven't been able to touch base with each of you personally to share our news...thank you so much for understanding!! After a few days of rest (and the proposal!) in Kibogora, we headed north to visit some good friends and colleagues, and when we got back to Kigali we had a rushed few days of visits and socializing with friends here before going north to spend quality time with some mountain gorillas (pictures to follow in a later post). We finished off our trip as the very blessed guests of Baraka and her family, and Vic got to meet some precious friends at church this morning in Gasabo. All this to say that we haven't been very close to internet (and therefore, skype) very often...the fastest way to share our news was to blog and go the un-preferred route of the email blast...

I look forward to catching up with each of you....thank you again for your notes of encouragement! xo