Alright....here are a few for you to look at!

There is something incredibly powerful about those final moments before a wedding.  So deeply profound and moving.  I walked into the bedroom at the condo that the 3 boys had shared all week, Matt was busy packing for he and Lindsays honeymoon cruise. It was the night before the wedding. He was sitting on the bed, looking around and I stepped in, sitting down on the bed next to my firstborn son.  I was feeling so many things. Pride, joy, relief, happiness, and a desire to say one last thing before I didn't get any time to be alone with him again.  I had actually thought of this moment a lot in the last few months.  I had thought of his usual nervousness about being in front of people, his natural reserve that he operates out of and the way he rarely shows his emotions. It had been my hope that I would get the chance to share with him my heart, to give him some "wedding day advice" and to be able to tell him just how I feel about him.  Its never easy to do, tell whats in your heart. I honestly try and then, when it is right at that most important moment, I cry.  I have a place in my heart that is owned by each of our kids, for different reasons and for different things about each of them.  Matt has overcome so much adversity and has become such a wonderful man. Over the years, as I have watched him struggle with who he is and then eventually begin to accept himself, I have often thought of the deep and tender love that the Lord shows for that one little sheep who wanders away, that one prodigal son who has taken his riches and squandered them.  I have felt the ache of the father in that story of watching the road for the return of a beloved child. I have felt the Lords heart when looking for our child, trying to reach him and holding him when we found him.  I have watched his heart warm, heal, grow bigger, grow bolder, be willing and be open, it has continued to amaze and touch me in the deepest part of me and when I look at him, I cannot even express the gratitude I have in my heart that he is choosing right, choosing well and choosing family.  What a blessing!

So, we talked.  I told him how proud I am of  him and a few other things but I also told him that this bride, this very beautiful and gorgeous woman who, I might add, looked incredible in her dress, was going to want him to nearly burst when he saw her walk down the aisle...He didnt disappoint.  I so wish I had a picture and I so hope the photographer has one because when I saw his face as he saw her, I thought his eyes would pop out of his head and his smile would split the sky!  What a grin, what love and hope that shined out!!! Beautiful and intensely intimate.  It was so cute...she got the giggles, he kept talking very quietly to her and she would smile at him and then giggle.  At one point they both kind of giggled and looked like a couple of little kids who get to finally enjoy the wait!  It was wonderful, special and very meaningful.

I have so many pictures to share with you.  It was a strange sort of day for me in a way.  I was the only one NOT in the wedding and so wasn't with the family much.  I got to see the guys beforehand, the girls beforehand and I got to hug a very nervous, very excited Lindsay.  Here she is in the brideroom, just minutes before the wedding....

Isn't she just the prettiest? 

Waiting to be told to go to the chapel....look at this matched set!

I love this shot....Lu looks up as Aunt ZZ is walking through the gate, little girl seeing a princess approach...can you just see it????

I was standing outside looking into the side door of the church and caught Lindsay, Ray, and Courtney just inside the door...I love the look on Courtney's face as she looks at her sister and that Linds stopped to talk to Ray about something...isn't it just the sweetest picture? 

When we saw this we realized it looked like Lu was posing and took a pic of herself...being all cute and stuff. Truth is?  I was changing her diaper and Aunt Alexis took the shot....

Lindsays family: from L to R

Grandpa and Grandma (Mimi), Blair, Courtney, Teri, Scott, Linds, Matt, Cpt. Jack (Scott's brother) , his wife, Uncle Mark (Teri's brother), Michelle 

I have HUNDREDS of pictures I want to share but it takes so long to download them I am going to have to do it in stages!  Trust me, I will get them in here.  I don't want to put them on Facebook (most of them Alexis took and they are hers to share there and it would take just as long to put them on picasa so....I will get them in here, we have some great ones!

At this point, I don't really even know how to blog the "big day" mostly because so many wonderful things happened and it I still feel this sense of sadness that it is over.  I will save it for another time perhaps, or simply let the pictures speak for themselves. To have us all together was the biggest blessing for John and I and I don't know how to describe that.  To see the sheer joy on Matts face, of belonging to someone, of pledging his undying faithfulness and love to another in front of all of us, was, again, indescribable. I am full of so much...gratitude that our children know they are loved, love us and want to be with us, around us, and that we have such a wonderful family....As I said before, Lucy got sick while we were there and Matt and Lindsay took them to the Urgent Care center in Navarre for Lu to get care.  In the middle of the wedding plans, the craziness of getting all that together, they both took time to do that.  I texted them both and thanked them for making time to take care of Lucy...the answer?  "No Problem" "that's what family is for, to stick together"

Isn't that the truth?  I was asked by someone today if it was worth the trip ....

ONE MILLION PERCENT....YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More pics to come....