The biggest challenge with family weddings is to be as much help as possible without actually missing the sense of occasion in the “can’t see the wood for the trees” sense.

So we arrived Thursday, and have joyfully thrown ourselves into the “do whatever we’re asked to do on the off-chance that it might help” mode of operation.

Rebekah, consequently, spent Friday making floral arrangements. I asked cousin Zandra if she needed any help in the kitchen and spent the next six hours cooking. I didn’t actually make anything myself, but I did lots of pieces of the cooking and washed dishes and cleaned and cut up vegetables and fruit and stirred a lot. But I do honestly believe I could pull off a cobbler now if I had to.

Mixed in with all of this is – still – the excitement of getting to meet Andrew’s Alicia, and the wonder of spending time with David Henry. However much there is to do, this weekend is still very much all about the celebration of being a family. Rebekah is one of five siblings, and it’s not very often that all five are available for a family picture at one time…. I hope someone remembers to take it!

So this morning, as I post this, we’re heading into the cauldron of activity again. I pray that tomorrow I’ll have the opportunity to write about a life-charged wedding event, one that speaks peace and joy and promise into two young lives, ready to begin the beauty of a new family.

Regardless, there will be some more quality-time with David. And that alone is going to be worth the drive. With family scattered literally all over the world, I am just grateful for one more reason to be together..

– DEREK