“Oh, GraceAnna…” my mom whispered as we stood in the small dress shop in Charleston.
We had just walked in the door and we were both staring at a beautiful wedding dress that was displayed in the center of the store.
“It’s beautiful,” my mom continued as she walked toward the dress.
I stood there for a moment, unable to move. I couldn’t believe the dress that was before my eyes. It was exactly what I wanted. It was exactly what I had dreamed.
My mom’s words from just an hour before echoed in my mind, “Let’s pray that if God has a different dress for you, He would just put it right in front of us.”
But this was honestly too good to be true.
The dress must be extremely expensive, I thought. It must be way too expensive. God couldn’t have answered our specific prayer like that! He couldn’t have done it so quickly either, I mean, could He?
I stood there, unbelieving, trying to convince myself that this just wasn’t real.
I stepped toward the wedding dress, half expecting it to vanish as I got closer.
I touched the feminine ruffle collar and admired the simple silhouette of the dress.
It was simple, different, and elegant. It was me.
As I stood there in awe, completely in my own world, I faintly heard my mom in the background ask the sales woman “How much?“
I heard the woman give a one digit answer to which my mom replied, “Thousand?”
Please don’t let her say thousand.
“No, hundred,” the woman responded, “That’s the base price, then depending on how you customize…”
My heart jumped when I heard her answer. It was not only my dream dress, but I couldn’t believe it, it was less than half the price of the other dress I had ordered.
“Can I try it on?” I asked, looking toward my mom and the sales woman, knowing in my heart that this would be my wedding dress. Knowing without a doubt that God had heard my prayer.
And absolutely knowing, without a doubt, that I would love it.
“Yes, of course,” the sales woman replied as she began to take it off the display.
Within minutes, I was standing in front of the full-length mirror in the dressing room. I stepped out for my mom to see.
“Oh, GraceAnna…” my mom said again.
I felt the tears well up in my eyes as the words of Matthew 6 reverberated in my mind:
“. . .And why are you worried about clothing? . . .
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?
For the Gentiles {the world} eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
I stared in awe at the dress that God had provided. Why had I ever worried?
This was the dress I would wear on the day I changed my last name from Broggi to Castleberry.
I thought about all the times I had dreamed of this day.
I thought about all the times I had prayed for God to bring me a godly guy, wondering if getting married would ever be a reality for me.
I thought about the times that my heart had been broken over relationships that had ended or that didn’t materialize at all.
I thought about the times I had cried on the phone to my mom after being hurt and my mom saying, “GraceAnna, God obviously has something different for you. Something that will be better for you. You have to believe that.” I had to clung to those words.
I thought about those times when I felt God saying, “no” to things that I wanted to work out.
I thought about the times when I wondered if my prayers were just hitting the ceiling.
I thought about how I had hoped that one day I would be able to give myself as a pure bride for my husband.
I thought about the first time I heard Grant’s voice over the phone.
I knew that God was doing something, something that I hadn’t expected. He was answering my prayers.
He had seen. He had heard.
And now, here I was, with a white dress on that symbolized not only God’s gift of a husband for me, but God showing me once again that He is near to His children who call on Him.
I closed my eyes and whispered the only words I could think to say, “Thank you Lord, thank you.“
—————————————
My cell phone rang. It was over an hour later and my mom and I were stepping out of the dress shop.
“Hi, GraceAnna!“ Grant exclaimed over the phone.
“Hi Grant, good morning!“ I knew Grant was getting up early to go to work in Japan.
“Wow, you sound excited? What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing you should or can know about,” I replied smiling as I stood on the street curb.
“Come on, GraceAnna? What?”
“Seriously, I can’t tell you. But I will one day.”
“Okay, well I just wanted to call and tell you I love you before heading to work.”
I hung up the phone and smiled. I had two wedding dresses now. I could be like one of those brides that changes her dress half-way through the wedding day.
Of course, I was sending the other dress back. But it was funny to think that I had wanted to keep things simple, and now I had two dresses.
I smiled again when I thought about Grant. This was all real. I had the perfect dress to wear on my wedding day. I just knew Grant was going to love it.
to be continued…
Castleberry Hearts 
I loved this part and your dress was beautiful! How awesome it is to be reminded that God cares about EVERY little detail of our lives. This encourages me to want to pray about even the really small things and not to overlook any area of my life.Love,Erin
I want to share a quick story with you…I read your TH pt. 20 on the 5th, and loved how once again you trusted everything to God. On Friday, after everyone headed out to school and work I fed our cat and let her outside as I normally do. By Sunday night we realized our precious 10 yr. old kitty was missing. Although she went outside each day, she was always in our yard or across the street, and she never ventured out any further. My girls, 13 and 10 began to become anxious and worried to the point of tears when we realized that something just wasn't right. Instantly your story popped into my mind, and I told my girls that God cares about even the little things, things that seem too unimportant for most people to bring before God, but we were going to stop and pray right then and there. We continued to pray each day through the next week. By last Friday our kitty had not returned to us, so we thanked God for all the time that we had with her and we trusted that where ever she was, God hearing our requests for her protection, would be with her. Well, last night, a week and three days after she went missing, I prayed with the girls and put them to bed. I was headed to bed myself when something told me to look out the front window. As I did and at that moment, I saw a white figure running up our walkway toward our house. I wondered if it could be her, this cat was cry loudly, almost screeching, and our cat never cried like that before. I opened the front door and turned on the light and realized it was our cat! She was running toward me and I ran toward her (yes, very Hollywood-style) I could not believe it! I walked with her into my girl's room and turned on the light, and they jumped out of bed, they could not believe it! It was such a beautiful lesson for them, that even in the little things God cares about even our smallest concerns and hears us when we pray. We each praised God right then and there. Thank you for the wonderful reminder to stop and pray in any and every situation!