Nebraska's Sweetest Love Story

Nov 01, 2022

Meet Bethany and Gideon... one of the loveliest couple's you will even meet, enjoy as they graciously share their faith and love story with us.

I’m currently sitting in my new home, in Nebraska, USA looking out to snow ridden streets with two rings on my finger while I type my first blog post as Mrs. Bethany BADEER. It still feels like a dream sometimes but I sit here with a thankful heart, never forgetting all the prayers that brought me here. The wait was long but my, oh my, IT WAS WORTH IT.

My family and friends would always tell me during our season of waiting: “Beth, once you are together again, nothing else is going to matter and this time apart won’t seem as painful”. They were right. I am blessed with a multitude of incredible people in my world.

During the year and a half Gideon and I did long distance, never did I ever think I would be writing these next 6 words BUT… I am thankful for long distance. Yep, I just wrote that. Like any trial you endure you can’t really see the impact or the work God is doing because your heart is heavy, your face is wet from tears, you feel lost, confused, frustrated and straight up overwhelmed. All completely valid emotions.

I never scale my hardships with others because everyone’s hard is different but I scale my own hardships. An example of a small hardship in my own life was the HSC in year 12. (If you aren’t from Australia, firstly, it’s the dumbest thing you’ll ever have to do in your schooling life. Secondly, HSC stands for your higher school certificate. You work all year on assignments + exams and each mark goes towards your final testing for each subject you choose. The end of year exams are spanned across 6-8 weeks from memory and they go for around 3-4 hours each. The mark you get then determines if you can get into university and study for another 3+ years… sounds fun right? No thanks, I hated school).

I rate this hardship as small because it was NOTHING in comparison to losing my father. You get me?

Long distance was honestly, without being completely dramatic, one of the hardest things I have ever endured. It’s not something you can explain, nor is it something people can really empathise with unless they’ve been through it too.

Gideon and I, as I mentioned above, did long distance for a year and a half. In that year and a half he came out to Australia twice. The first time for 7 weeks, when he proposed. He then went back to America for 3 and a half months and came out again for 2 weeks. Our next stint apart was 6 and a half freaking months. By the grace of God and only by the grace of God, we did it.

Instagram: @idlewildcreative.co

I guess I should mention once Gideon and I got engaged, we got straight onto applying for a K1 finance visa. There is so much paper work that goes into this, it’s honestly ridiculous. But I can completely respect America and the counties visa/immigrant laws. It all makes sense but it’s not fun to go through. It’s just one big waiting game and for the majority of the time you are spent in the dark with no communication from the consulate office. From first submission to my visa interview was 9 months total. During this time I’m not advised to go to America on an Esta (travel visa) as I already had an immigrant visa pending. Hence why Gideon always came out to Australia. He did 12 flights in less than 6 months. Flying from the midwest to Australia is LONG.

We filled this glass jar with sand signifying an unbroken unity between us.

The Dress: I originally bought a wedding dress online. It was beautiful, long sleeve lace with an open back. It was a traditional wedding dress but the moment I put it on I cried because it just wasn’t me. A few months later my family and I were at our local shopping centre and came across the most beautiful boho lace dress with big bell sleeves and I was in love. I tried it on and felt so me. It was from purity lace designs.

Makeup: I did my own make up. I used raww cosmetics a completely natural Australian brand.

https://www.rawwcosmetics.com.