Written for our wedding in 2008. Written and performed by myself and my fiance, played while we lit our unity candle.

It Is Good

Lyrics from He The Pearly Gates Will Open: Words: Fredrick A. Blom, 1917; trans­lat­ed from Swed­ish to Eng­lish by Nathaniel Carlson, cir­ca 1935.

Music written, arranged, and performed by Aprille Donaldson

Love Divine

Words: Eli­za E. Hew­itt, in Glad Hal­le­lu­jahs, 1887.

Music written, arranged, and performed by Aprille Donaldson.



More About Jesus

music and lyrics copyrighted by Aprille Donaldson 2009

This song "Hero's Wife" was a work of God. As a Ministry Team Leader at christianmilitarywives.com, I was put in charge of making a tribute video that would represent the vision and desire of CMW. As I searched for a background song, I had trouble finding one that had an emphasis on God's help for the Christian military wife. It was my desire to write a song, but nothing would come to my mind.

That's when God brought Colleen Saffron into this song. Colleen is another Ministry Team Leader on CMW and the co-creator of the organization Operation Life Transformed. "The mission of Operation Life Transformed (OLT) is to provide education and resources to our military spouses and caregivers, and increase awareness of the long term needs of these families and support the military spouse and caregiver as they re-enter the workforce." (www.operationlifetransformed.org)

Colleen emailed me three separate poems that she had written along the theme of Christian military wives. I took these poems, combined a few lines from each poem, added several lines of my own, and came up with the lyrics to "Hero's Wife." As I was forming the lyrics the tune had already begun to form in my mind, and within a week I had the accompaniment to the song written. God's timing could not have been more perfect! My husband was deployed, and I had already scheduled a trip out of town to be with my family. I was able to use my brother's recording studio to record the accompaniment and the vocals, an opportunity which only presents itself a few times each year.

The photos that accompany the song on this video were submitted to me from members of christianmilitarywives.com and members of our group and fanpage on Facebook. I pray that this song will be an encouragement and an inspiration to each person who hears it.

HERO'S WIFE

The lyrics and tune for this composition were born between my husband's two deployments.

"Last year" (deployment 2008-2009) refers to our first year apart. 
"This year" (dwell time 2009-2010) was a celebration of our reunion and our first Christmas together as a married couple.
"Next year" (2010) ended up being more prophetic than I imagined. We celebrated Christmas early because my husband's deployment date interrupted our plans. Christmas Day was spent packing his bags and shortly thereafter he was gone. 

I finished the arranging and recording of this song during our first week apart during his second deployment.

I dedicate this song to all of the servicemen and women, and their families, as they go through the holidays, either apart or together. May we always remember what it most important...having our loved ones in our lives.

Best Gift Of All (A Christmas Song for Military Wives)

I wrote this song when my husband was deployed to Afghanistan

We Never Say Goodbye (A Military Love Song)

The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, adapted by 9-year-old, Ezra Donaldson on October 27, 2019. This was a school assignment for literature class. (The Good & The Beautiful, Language Arts & Literature Level 2, Lesson #41)