So, it’s been awhile since I’ve been on here, but we’ve been kind of busy since Christmas and the New Year getting ready to marry off our first kid! While most of the planning and preparation for the actual event was done by our daughter and her fiance (now husband), I still had to get the rest of our crew dressed and ready for the big day!

Two of our kids live out of state. Chrissy flew up from Florida on Thursday, but after several delays, she didn’t actually get here until the early morning hours on Friday. Jim was flying in from Missouri, and he texted me the day before the wedding frantically asking for prayer. His flight was also delayed, but he had a connecting flight to make and it didn’t look like he was going to make that flight. Thankfully, the airline was able to get him on a different flight into Washington, and his good friend, Daniel, came to the rescue and picked him up since we were at the rehearsal when his flight finally arrived. Whew!

If you know my family, then you know that we aren’t typically a “dress up” kind of gang, so most of us needed to get appropriate wedding attire. That meant hours of shopping for dresses and shoes with my girls, trying on pants and shoes for my guys, haircuts all around and suit alterations for the father of the bride! My friend Vivian was amazing and helped me out by shopping for two days with me to help me find my dress!

I have to take a minute to brag on my thrift shopping skills. We found my dress for $20 at Ross, Amanda’s dress for $25 marked down from $65 at the Dress Barn and we got Dave an amazing Jos. A. Banks suit for $20. We went to Goodwill on the last Saturday of the month when everything is half price for that deal. If you’re into bargain shopping, I highly recommend it! I also got all the older boys’ purple shirts at Sears for half off. I love a good deal!

Oh, I have a quick funny and somewhat nerve wracking story from the morning of the wedding. My two youngest daughters and I got to the church early that morning to help with last minute preparation and of course to spend some time with the bride! Amanda was getting her dress on, and came to me with a troubled look on her face. The store forgot to remove the security tag from her dress when we bought it! It was the kind that if you try and take it off yourself it will explode with ink. I was going to try a hack I found online to remove it with a pair of forks, but after rethinking the possibility of ink everywhere and the ceremony just 2 hours away, I decided to call the mall around the corner and see of they could take it off for me. They were happy to, and just 30 minutes later, Amanda was tag free and dressed for the wedding! (I still think I could have taken it off with those forks, though.)

Anyway, I managed to get everyone looking decent and to the church on time, and our daughter’s big day was simply beautifully. The ceremony was lovely. My favorite part was watching Kyle when he saw her coming down the isle. Truly a man in love! Julia was a gorgeous bride, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome her husband into our crazy family. The reception was a lot of fun, and I finally got to see those two swing dance together!

It was kind of a surreal feeling watching Dave give our daughter away to someone else to take care of for the rest of her life. Julia hasn’t lived with us for over a year now, and I know that she is fully capable of being independent from us, but I imagine that on their child’s wedding day most parents experience that feeling of “am I really ready to let my baby go” that I felt that day. Happily, I know that I am ready to let her go, and a lot of that has to do with seeing her walking with the Lord, surrounded by godly friends and church family as well as the fact that she and her husband both desire a God-centered marriage.

Now that we’ve gone through all the emotions of marrying a child off, I think that I could do it again! Not too soon, though. For now, I am happy to continue praying for each of our children and their future spouses, whomever they may be, that God would be first and foremost in their hearts and in their lives. I might be praying for some grandkids too…