Wedding letter

September 26, 2025 (night of Rehearsal Dinner)

Dear Hope & Collin,

It's your Wedding Day Eve and I am so happy for both of you! Hopefully at this point you are feeling more excited than stressed after these long months (and years)of planning. No matter what, it's going to be a beautiful day because at the end of it, you will be married, and that's what counts.

I honestly cannot imagine a more perfect couple. You have so much in common, but have enough differences to complement each other. You work well together but also challenge each other to learn and grow. I pray that continues throughout your entire marriage.

I am forever thankful that God brought you together and I feel that Hayden had a hand in it too with the water polo connection to Isaak. It's actually quite amazing how the stars aligned for you to find each other even though you attended different colleges in different states, (along with having Covid to deal with), and yet were given the opportunity to meet and get to know each other as friends before starting to date. Once your romantic relationship began, you had the added challenge of even more long distance when Collin went back to California over the summer breaks., including the three-hour time difference. You made that work too by planning some elaborate cross-country road trips to get the Sequoia back and forth. The memories you made on those trips will last a lifetime.

Once the decision was made for you to settle in Michigan, the time came for Collin to move here. His Sequoia arrived and then his pod. The basement room was miraculously transformed into a surprisingly cozy bedroom. We experienced the heartache of losing Max but the blessing of adopting Brew and housetraining a brand new puppy. We juggled four cars in the driveway while we all tried to share one bathroom, share a refrigerator and small kitchen space, and try not to get in each other's way. That summer we took a family trip to the Kamp for a surprise marriage proposal. That fall, we got to see Collin start and finish the fire academy and then start his career. It was an honor and privilege for me to have a front-row seat to all of that. 

Sooner than I was ready, you found an apartment and moved out. That was harder than I thought it was going to be, but you needed your own space. I always felt welcome in your home even though it was hard to get together a lot on a regular basis, but it was fun to see you build your new life together. Fast forward to you finding and buying a house, Hope starting her career at the office, and an epic backyard wedding being planned, and here we are. 

I cannot fail to mention as well how thankful I am for Tim, Ioala, and Cambria. They welcomed Hope and us with open arms from the start, and I look forward to making decades of memories with them.

Finally, I'm not really in a position to offer much in the way of marital advice, but I recommend always being honest about your thoughts and feelings and keeping the lines of communication open. Good marriages don't happen by accident, and they take a lot of intentional effort. Always look out for each other and keep working together as a team. 

Collin, you have been entrusted with the gift of Hope. You have been blessed greatly by God and so has she. Please take good care of each other. Not only is Hope gaining a husband, but Carter is gaining another brother and I am gaining another son. God gives us the best gifts! Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gifts!

All my love now and always, 

Mom