Getting back to "normal"

My heart is still so full from our wedding weekend.  I was off work again today for some MOTB recovery.  I did not get to use the spa treatment yet that my daughter has made available to me, but I'm sure I will indulge myself with that soon. 

But today has been evidence of getting back to life post wedding.  S&K are on their honeymoon in Niagra and have unplugged from the rest of the world for a few days.  She called to say that their hotel room has a wonderful view of the falls, which is just so wonderful.  Out of town guests have all arrived home safely, and my son, D, flew back to California this afternoon, so my daughter, B, has returned to take rightful ownership back of her room!  We returned the rental bridal back drop today.  And I've written most of my thank you notes, but not all, and done quite a bit of laundry.  I still haven't completely changed over and organized "Wedding Central" into "Post Wedding Central," but I'm sure that will come with time. 

So the house is quiet again.  After weeks of activities every night and checking off to-do lists, I'm thinking of to-done lists and remembering special people and special moments.  I'm remembering all of the time S and I spent working on creating the program fans and tying ribbons on them.  I'm thinking about how B came out of her shell some to help S with favor boxes and cake boxes and organizing the escort cards with the table names and the placecards.  I'm cherishing once-in-a-lifetime moments, working on centerpieces or making bows for the flower girl basket that we found for $3 at a Goodwill store.  I'm thinking about all of the meals we shared together in these last couple of weeks leading up to the wedding.  And I tear up - not because I want to take those moments all back and relive them, but because I'm so grateful that I had them.  I know that not everyone gets them.  But we did.  And I'm grateful. 

And speaking of tears, I will share a few of my special, emotional moments from the wedding itself.  I was fine all the way up to the point right before the wedding was set to begin.  All of the guests had arrived, and the wedding party was lined up, ready to go in.  I turned around to look, and that's when I see my daughter at the back of the line, waiting for her escort.  And it became so real to me, and she was so beautiful and strong and confident in that moment, I couldn't help but feel the tears come.

And then her escort leads her in - her older brother.  I don't want to deter from the beauty of these moments too much by going into our history, but suffice it to say, that my children's father has been out of their lives for well over 10 years.  But that has not stopped them from growing and maturing and laughing and LIVING and becoming all that God intends them to be.  And that was noticably true in this picture - oldest brother, walking his sister down the aisle and handing her off to her future.  How could I not be proud or shed a tear or two at the beauty and redemption of it all?

The only other time I got emotional was during the vows.  Most of the time K, was joking, probably to keep himself from crying.  In fact, I have titled this pic, "Do you take this woman?"  He made quite the show of looking S up and down, appraising whether he would indeed take her to be his wife or not...I am so glad one of our friends caught that very moment on film.

Now that I've shed more tears just writing this down, I should probably stop before I get a full-blown tears headache!  Thanks for reading, and I hope you've enjoyed hearing a bit more about our wedding adventure together.  Most of all I hope you are grateful for the moments of love and tears and laughter in your own lives.  God bless, J'Deb