Jenny & Jarrad

Jenny was the first woman to hand me a tube of bright red lipstick and say, “You would look good in this.”  (For those of you who know me, my red lipstick is a staple in my style now). She was the first person to tell me I would marry Chase, after only one date. Our time together in Michigan was short lived, but Jenny left quite the impression as a friend before she moved to Iowa to be with the love of her life, Jarrad.

Skip ahead a few years and Jenny and Jarrad decided they wanted to become parents. Successfully undergoing in vetro fertilization, they were well on their way when life threw them the worst kind of curveball. Jenny suffered a massive stroke. She underwent an emergency surgery where doctors had to remove the right hemisphere of her brain. The stroke left her in pretty rough shape, unable to move the left side of her body and mountains of pain. Unwavering, Jarrad never left her side.

This is the kind of miracle you witness maybe once in a lifetime. Not only did Jenny survive the stroke, but so did her baby boy, Sterling. Jenny fought all winter long to gain back her strength and her smile, and when Spring came, the next miracle occurred: Sterling came into this world a health and happy baby.

So you see, this wedding wasn’t your typical wedding. There wasn’t fussing over the small things. Family and friends gathered in the middle of gorgeous Iowa fields on a perfectly easy summer day to celebrate what real love looks like. For Jenny and Jarrad, they had already been through sickness and health, good times and bad… They already knew what most of us spend a lifetime learning. Their love has been a reminder to to me to never take a single day for granted; to smile as much as humanly possible and above all things, stand by the ones that matter most.