Our Weekend: For Better or For Worse

Spencer and I spent our Valentine's weekend at the gorgeous, world class Ballantyne Hotel in Charlotte, NC. We enjoyed many of their amenities, including the golf course, amazing restaurant, and their spa by getting a very enjoyable (and much needed) couple's massage. 

I had planned to go into detail about all of the wonderful things we ate and experienced there, but it just does not seem quite appropriate now. When we returned to our room after dinner on Saturday night, I picked up my phone (which I had left in the room) and discovered that my beautiful, amazing Aunt Linda had lost her long battle with breast cancer. 

This is how I know I have found the man for me. While we had a bottle of champagne on ice, chocolate covered strawberries, a cheese plate and a bottle of red wine, all set up in a beautiful hotel suite - pretty much the most romantic scene you could imagine on Valentine's Day - all was forgotten in that moment. We sat and cried (well, I cried, he hugged) for what seemed like an eternity. I got mascara and lip gloss all over his clean white dress shirt. He brought me mounds of tissues and rubbed my back while I ugly-cried. He told me to forget where we were and what we had set up, and to just be sad if I wanted to be. He showed me that caring for me and being by my side in hard times, was much more important than our plans and images of romance we had. 

That, my friends, is romance. Romance is not candles, bubble baths, champagne and lingerie. Romance is kindness, hugs, and commitment. It's being there for someone when things are great and fun, and also when things are hard. It's letting you cry while reassuring you everything will be ok. Because it will be. 

I'll end this post with some pictures. The first pictures are of dinner on Saturday, and the rest I am sharing are of my lovely aunt, who will always be remembered by her friends, family, coworkers, and the entire town where she lived as the fun, cheerful woman who could take on the world with Christ on her side, spreading His love, and now is rejoicing with a healed body in Heaven. One day we all will be reunited again, and what a family reunion that will be!

Delicious surprise in our room!

My Valentine <3

Hubba hubba!

Spencer's Dinner: Elk

My dinner: Cap Steak

Heart-shaped caramel candies from the chef

Ice cream trio: Brown Sugar, Pistachio, Rocky Road

"The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death."
- Isaiah 57:1-2

She indeed loved the Lord, and He has taken her from the earth to spare her from evil, and has found rest. These verses are a comfort to me.

Making something delicious, no doubt

Dressed for Walk through Bethlehem, which she founded and ran in her town

With her two beautiful daughters. She loved them more than life.

All of the siblings together.

The Foust girls with their parents, my Mamaw and Papaw

At my sister's wedding, radiating joy

She was, and always has been, truly beautiful, inside and out.

Thanks for your kind words and prayers!


Until next time - -