the heart of life: chickens, chickens, and more chickens...

After waiting and waiting for months, the weekend was finally here! My high school Young Life leader was getting married.

She called all of us girls her "chickens" and we called her "mama hen."

She helped shape many of the experiences I had my junior and senior year. She showed up. She loved me for where I was at and what was going on in my life. And we always had the best time ever.

And, then, with the most perfect timing, all of the chickens moved across the country to start college and she moved off the Arizona to live with her boyfriend.

Who, as of this weekend, is now her husband!

Six of the chickens assembled, stayed in one hotel room, and took over Phoenix, AZ. Things were gonna get crazy.

It took a lot of planning and logistics to get to this place. Throw six 20-year-old girls in a random city. Some of us rode a cab for the first time. There may or may not have been a moment where some of us didn't know what city we were in. But, after a week of stressful finals, all of us were just ready to be. We didn't have any agenda. We didn't even know what was going on half of the time. And it was great.

We made it to the wedding ceremony. Which was the definition of hipster. Danielle did a beautiful job; it was very her. She bought a lot of things at thrift stores, made the benches and tables out of old doors. There were empty frames decorating the walls. It was straight out of Pinterest.

And of course, the best part was getting to see Mama Hen. And watching the beautiful love that her and Josh share.