On the uphill swing

So it's official, another day of birth has come and gone.

We were blessed with the wedding of a dear sweet young couple on that day.  I say blessed because there is NOTHING better than a fabulous wedding- and this one included such dear and wonderful fabulous friends from church so it was a PAR-TAY!  It was, without a doubt, one of the best evenings we've had in a long time.  The kids danced, I danced, Dan even danced (kind of- in his own dan dances kind of way).  There was cake and shirley temples and beautiful fresh flowers.

But the most amazing part to me was the wedding.  Dear me, I love baptisms and weddings.

At one point the minister had them hold their palms up to each other and he talked about the hands that would comfort them, hold them, love them........it was gorgeous.

And he talked about the nail scarred hands of Jesus.

There was unity sand (these new age whipper snappers- in my day we had candles and we liked it : ) and they braided a rope representing each of them and God- and a scripture was read from Ecclesiates (or Ephisians- it was an E book) about a rope of three strands being unbreakable.  And it was beautiful. 

We started going to our church about 14 years ago.  We became members 11 years ago.  This beautiful bride who was joined in marriage was about Ally's age when we first saw her.  And now she is a woman.  Joined in marriage.  And that is what makes me gasp.  Not how many candles are on my cake.  Just how quickly time changes.

At the reception, her mom and dad snuck onto the corner of the dance floor and her mom laid her head on her dads shoulder and they danced.  Together, both of their eyes shut, in the midst of 100 people but alone in their own world.  And I wiped the tears from my eyes.  Because I could see them many moons ago at their own wedding, starting their journey and wondering where the Lord would lead them.  Just as Emma and Ryan were.  It was such a beautiful sight.

Emily danced her heart out.  Sam ran around with friends with plastic spoons over his eyes doing 'the spoon dance'.  Allyson sat and watched, breathing it all in.  She did dance with me one song.  But otherwise sat and watched.  It will be just a moment in time before she could be that beautiful bride.  And that, my friends, is why birthdays get hard as you get older.

Sunday evening Dan surprised me with both of our families coming to the house for dinner.

It was a blessing.  And a nice ending to a perfect weekend.  Plus- my mom came down for dinner AND we actually remembered about her new fangled oxygen before lighting the birthday candles and didn't manage to blow her up.  That made it a perfect day.

What?  You expected pictures of the most beautiful wedding I've been to at held at their families farm?  Yeah- about that.  I forgot my camera.