This one's all about Andrew.

Andrew has just left, not ten minutes ago, to fly back to California. In all likelihood, we'll not see each other again for close to a year.
  Naturally i'm aching, as much as if my soul were physical and it were absent.
but i know as you all know who have met him that i am blessed beyond what i ever once deserved in him.
I'm reminded again and again that this time to prepare myself to be a wife is invaluable. And how better to remind myself of that than time removed from the distraction of the bliss of closeness, a time that allows me the luxury of clarity, the availability of truth aside from emotion, the access to the parts of this relationship that will last forever, and the opportunity to make all of that real in a setting which reserves me for humble service and thereby inherently holds me focused on the most important aspect of the healthiest version of our union.
it's hard, but it's not too hard. it's so much, but it's not too much.
I'm confident the memories we made while he was visiting - the most excellent, most meaningful, and undoubtedly the most contented memories of our relationship to date - will hold me over until he holds me again.
Well, that and skype.

But speaking of memories, here's a really good one:

Our Engagement party on Tuesday Night.

We got to have a community gathering and celebration of our love, and both wore our new local outfits - I finally had a chance to wear the sari I bought at the trade fair in November, and Andrew wore a kurta he bought on this trip.

We had some fun games and a few sweet songs

and after all was said and done, they made us dance. (oh my.)

I danced with Joy for a little bit while everyone else got their groove on, because as I've  previously detailed, when you are wearing a sari as an inexperienced sari-wearer, there is no moment where you're not certain it won't spontaneously fall off of you. It was better for me to mellow this one out than break it down on the dance floor, though I clearly have the moves to be able to wow the crowd on a normal day:

yes.

 The gathering of our close friends here was a really special time for me. I know it was fun for everyone, but to be able to have a time of the fellowship that I cherish here based around an occasion of celebration and thankfulness was especially meaningful to me. I got to plan, I got to host, I got to invite, I got to give something back to people who have helped me so many times here. To be surrounded by their love as Andrew and I celebrated ours was everything I could ask for. 

To close, we asked everyone to pray for us. We sat in the middle of a cozy room filled with friends and they raised their hands in our direction, according to the Indian way, and prayed. There is a method here in prayer that is often used in which everyone prays audibly, but softly, at the same time - we call it simply "mass prayer". I have come to really love it, so I requested it for this time.  As I sat next to my fiancé, holding his hands, I heard pieces of different prayers for the health of our love, our growth, our affection, and our selflessness. Oh, to string those pieces of prayers together and use them to adorn the household we will build! I simply couldn't express to you how heavy the memory of that moment weighs in my heart. I will take it with me forever. 

There are a lot of things that feel the same again with Andrew gone and me sitting on my bed in Delhi (surrounded by pathetic little used tissues. that's irrelevant), but many things also feel completely changed. One thing I loved about these first two weeks of being engaged was finding that I would express myself and address myself differently - even to the point of substituting a "we" for "I" in many cases. And that in itself is the best way I can express to you all the excitement and contentment rolled up in this season of my life - though there is time to wait, and though i'm again in some ways alone, i'm not just me anymore. I'm in a we.

that changes so much, and counts for inestimably more than i can say.
I miss you already, my 'darling', my 'hero'.

Love from Delhi,
Julie: one part of a "we".