Life these past few weeks has been a little nutso and I feel like I've been trying to juggle about eight different things with only two hands. Fortunately, one good thing about being married is that you get someone else to help you out with everything (in theory). Though we don't always prioritize to-do lists in the same way, Sean is pretty good at getting things done. He's also good at sleeping in late.

Months ago, when I sent my wedding invitations out, I sent one to my host family in Santiago, Chile never thinking that they would be able to make the trip to Michigan for the big day. I was wrong. My 22 year old host sister, María José Castillo Gómez (nickname Koté) planned a trip around the date of my wedding. After letters and phone calls with the American embassy assuring them that I would claim full responsibility and that she was not here to stay permanently, Koté received the visa after two tries and booked her flight. She spent a total of three weeks in the U.S. and visited New York City, Boston and Philadelphia before heading to Michigan. She was supposed to stay with a family in Detroit and just come to Holland for the day, but when that fell through she ended up staying with my friends and family for a full week. This was slightly complicated by the fact that she doesn't speak much English at all.


Koté was supposed to arrive on Tuesday but her flight was cancelled so she arrived early on Wednesday morning. It was so much fun to see her again after so many years and it was very special to have her here. She is very fun, outgoing and social so the language barrier wasn't that much of a problem as she and my family used any means possible to communicate. I found my Spanish incredibly rusty after not being used for two years - I especially noticed my lack of speed and the amount of vocabulary words I had forgotten.


We did as much as we could before the busyness of the wedding fell upon us. On Wednesday night we had a barbecue in the backyard and made S'mores which Koté found both amusing and delicious. Because so much was going on and Sean and I were going to stay at a hotel in Holland I asked several gracious Spanish-speaking friends to host Koté (thanks Tracey and Karl, Bethany, Tim, and Ross and Shelly!) She had a fantastic time with all of them and got to see some different aspects of Holland.


It was sad to see her go though I hope someday soon Sean and I can attend her wedding in Chile - that would be so fun!

I just wanted to use this post to share some pictures of the ceremony last week Thursday at Apple Blossom Chapel in Fennville. We had perfect weather and our photographer Nick DeVries took some really great shots. For this post, I only have some pictures from our little point and shoot, but if you want to see the professional ones you can check them out here.


There were 22 people invited to our little ceremony: our parents and grandmas and our brothers and sisters and their families. My brother Ben was the officiating minister, my sister Susie sang and played the guitar and Sean's sisters Jen and Katie did some scripture reading. The participants who stole the show, however, were the ring bearers and flower girls who were my nieces and two of Sean's small cousins.


We arrived at the chapel at about 4:00pm and Susie finished touching up my hair and makeup and helped me into my dress. I was in a little cabin about 100 yards from the chapel and it was fun to peek out and watch everyone arrive. My dad walked me down the very short aisle and after that my brother gave a very personal and touching message and directed the vows.


After the ceremony we stayed for another 45 minutes for some family pictures on the grounds and around the orchard - I don't think I have had to smile so much before in my whole life! When pictures were finished we all drove to the Sandpiper on the lake for dinner. After dinner, Sean and I drove to our suite at City Flatts hotel in downtown Holland. It was so much fun to have a deluxe room for probably the only time in our life. Out of all the wedding festivities, Thursday was my favorite day, hands down. It was so special and non-stressful to spend time with a small group of family for the evening and I'm grateful to all the people who helped it go smoothly.

One of the more memorable trips taken to wish Sean and I farewell was the long train ride up from Xiamen by Zhen Zhen and her boyfriend. They arrived late Friday night and had to leave early Sunday morning. It was a short visit but it meant a lot and I was so glad to be able to see her and hang out one last time before leaving.


On Saturday we spent the day hanging out in Changzhou. We visited a new café, checked out Qin Chen's new apartment, changed some Chinese RMB to dollars and then went out to dinner. After dinner we stayed up pretty late playing games and catching up.


Zhen Zhen is one of my favorite women that I met in China because she's spunky, outgoing and not afraid to go against the norm. She's refreshing in a climate of conformism and I'm going to miss her a lot. I hope she comes to the U.S. one of these days!

Every day or so I get an email from one of my students in China wondering how things are going - they are especially curious about the wedding (or maybe they just want to practice their English, I'm never really sure =). Many have asked if we plan to take a "honey trip" or when we plan on having children. Right before we left China students stopped by to say goodbye, give us things they had made or written during the year and congratulate us on getting married. We also received a barrage of emails and text messages while we were preparing to leave. Sean got a lot from freshmen girls who were very sorry to see him go. One of my favorites appears below:

Hello, Sean!
Long time no see! When you see this e-mail, you probably already
packed up your luggage and are ready to leave. Anyway, congratulate on
your coming reunion with your family and friends even if it's hard for
me to say goodbye to you.
Till now, i still remember clearly how excited and sleepless i
was the night before your first class. Maye you think I'm exaggerating
but it's the truth. For you,teaching in this school is just one of your
many experiences but for me it's a lot. I'm sure this semester will be
an unforgettable part of my life.
Then I want to thank you for writing down your beautiful
wishes for me in my journal [homework requirement]. I just want you to know that you and Sarah are both so fabulous that you guys also deserve every great thing in
this world. I'm so happy and lucky to meet you and as a student of
you. Wish you and Sarah live a long and happy life. I'm going to miss
you! May a favorable wind send you safely home! Remember to keep in
touch.

A lot of people have asked me if I miss China which is hard to answer considering I think living in the U.S. is fabulous and coming home is one of the best feelings ever. I don't really miss living there but I do miss my friends and students and I also miss experiencing life a different way and thinking about things from a new perspective. For example, have any of my OSU students in the past lost sleep from excitement the night before their Spanish class? Most assuredly not. It's fun remembering my time in China because I'm getting to see little glimpses of how it's changed me and how day to day life and attitudes in each place are so fascinatingly different.

It's been a relatively crazy week in the Sanderson family - we've had lots of last minute wedding meetings and plans but with some twists thrown in just for extra fun. Twist #1 - My Chilean sister's host family in Detroit fell through so now she will be staying with me for a week during probably the busiest week of my life. This is her first time out of the country, she is coming alone, she's only 22 and she doesn't speak English. Fortunately, Sean and I have, cumulatively, about 2 local friends who can speak Spanish and who happen to be very kind and generous people who are going to host her for a couple nights when we will be, um, busy.


Twist #2 My little sister got engaged on Saturday! Her fiance, Lucas, called me Thursday of last week after he saw that I was going to be in Columbus the upcoming weekend. We made a plan to meet up (he lives 2 hrs west of Columbus) after he proposed to Susie while she was visiting him from Pennsylvania. Thus, my parents who are already doing a lot for my wedding are already having to start to think about the next one coming up in May or June 2012. It's busy over here!


My weekend in Columbus was a lot of fun. Sean and I drove down on Friday and met up with some of my OSU graduate student friends at Mad Mex on campus. We caught up over drinks and talked about their upcoming trips to Holland for my wedding - I am so excited! There will be a pretty decent showing of Buckeyes making the commute. Then on Saturday, I watched Sean play in a frisbee tournament with the Holland team "Midnight Meat Train". In the afternoon I headed over to Lucas' house to meet his family, to see my sister and her new ring and to hear all about the proposal.


It was fun meeting Lucas' very large Italian family and even more fun eating all of the incredible food that they made to celebrate. We went to see his cousins' band perform outside and then saw a drama outside about the local history called "Trumpet in the Land". I left on Sunday back to Columbus to be able to spend time with my friend Kristin and her family. She has a little boy who I have slowly watched grow up and it is amazing to see how much he has changed in a year. We hung out and went out to eat and then I caught up with Catherine, Greg and Caitlin when we went to see the movie "Bridesmaids" and had drinks afterwards.


After sleeping in on Monday and hanging out at the pool in Kristin's neighborhood we spent happy hour with some of her husbands friends and then got dinner at the Columbus Brewing Company (great food and drinks - why did I never go there before when I lived in Cbus?) The only thing that was sad about the whole weekend was the long drive home by myself (Sean had driven home with the frisbee team on Sunday night). In about a week and a half though I will be able to see all of my Columbus friends again for the reception - can't wait!