The day before the wedding, friends and family began to arrive.

Grandchildren were the best part.

One thing about having lots of brothers, you have a steady supply of groomsmen. This group looks like trouble to me.

Ten children with kazoos

Official business

Smiling faces at the rehearsal dinner. Sal Sanzone came through with an amazing Italian feast followed by Mom’s homemade Cowboy Cookies and ice cream.

The big day finally arrives. The best man waits.

Wiggly cousins are offered $5.00 by Uncle Clayton to see who can go the longest without moving.

Making sure everyone looks dapper

More waiting…

And while we waited…

Handsome groom…

Beautiful bride…

More wedding photos and commentary upcoming……I will wait until my son-in-law is finished editing his professional ones!  I did leave the pictures large so you can click on each one for more detail.  I thought perhaps the ladies would like a closer look at this beautiful dress!

I honestly don’t know where the past two weeks went; it is all a blur, truly it is.

I do know that Ben and Julie were married in the loveliest of ceremonies and they are already heading home from a glorious honeymoon in Charleston, S.C.  I also know that we drove nearly 2000 miles, walked several more each day for several days in Washington D. C. and that I am nearly historied out.

We spent our first day driving to Virginia. We had everything we needed….a competent driver

i-Pods all around

and pop tarts.

After driving through the beautiful Shenandoah Valley,

where we stopped frequently to let me use my new camera,

we arrived at Monticello.

Since our last visit over twenty years ago, a museum had been added and there are now a variety of tours you can enjoy as you walk through the grounds. The gardens were fabulous and measured more than four football fields in length!

And the best part of the visit was our tour guide, Wayne,

who bears an uncanny resemblance to Thomas Jefferson himself!

especially to all the fathers in my life!

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” ~ MLK

HT: Camille

Appropriate thoughts for me as I complete the interviews for the upcoming Patriarchy Two podcast series. Please continue to pray as I edit and for those whose hearts will be touched by what they hear.

One more week.

Only one week until another “summer of change” seizes the day and we see yet one more child marry, leaving and cleaving and doing what children are supposed to do. It is a bittersweet time, one with both tears of sadness that life will never be the same again and tears of joy for all that this change promises to bring.

Perhaps I have put off finishing the little girl dresses to keep myself busy and not thinking too long and hard about how fast time has gone. It is a good thing I am up to my elbows in satin so I won’t be longing for the days of crayons and phonics, of napping together and reading under the dinosaur tent, of the time when I was the only woman in this boy’s life.

One more week.

Only one week until we meet all of Julie’s family. I am excited about this. I have prayed for this family for 23 years and I finally get to meet them. The Lord has graciously answered my prayers in parents who love Him and His word and have passed along that love to their daughter. I get to meet the mom and dad who have also prayed for my son. What a blessing it was to hear another mom’s voice telling me “Ben is just the man we have prayed for for Julie all these years.”

I also get to meet the extended family, aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, all who have invested themselves in my soon-to-be daughter-in-law. As we have gotten to know Julie over the past couple of years, we realize that she is so much the wonderful person that she is because of who they are and I can’t wait to meet them.

And I get to meet her church family, the Sunday school teachers and Awana leaders who also poured their lives into hers. All of these who have given themselves to Julie’s life have also given to me, to my son, and to any children the Lord may choose to give them. For all of these people, I am grateful.

I know there are parents who are appalled that we haven’t spent hours and hours getting to know another family before we approved of our son‘s marriage. There are even a few who think Clay should have brokered some sort of deal with Julie’s dad, establishing mutual goals for the next 200 years or so for the merging of our family trees.

But the fact is that this is Ben’s gig, he is the one who must step out and take the risk to woo and court a woman and to build a relationship with her family in the process. Our role has been as wise counselors and mentors, not betrothal instigators or courtship directors. Even in the Bible times this popular notion of “betrothal” didn’t always include parents meeting or approving of a future mate, let alone getting both families in the room together for approval. Look at Rebecca, hand -picked by Abraham’s servant. Her parents never met Isaac prior to watching her ride away on a camel! They simply understood that this person was from a godly, believing family and that the Lord was in the relationship from the beginning.

One more week.

Only one week until my son takes a wife. What does that even mean? When God saw that Adam needed a suitable life partner, He created just the perfect one. Genesis 2 tells me that God saw Adam’s need and gave him the woman who was suitable just for Adam and that simply for that reason is my son to leave our family and to cleave to his new wife.

Clay and I are continually amazed at the perfect choosing of mates the Lord has done in our family. In each of their marriages we have delightfully observed the differences and the similarities, the weaknesses and the strengths that each has brought together and how God has woven them into oneness. We already see how the Lord has begun this with Ben and Julie! No planning or strategizing on our part could have done what God has done.

My son isn’t taking anything, rather, he is receiving a precious treasure from God’s gracious hand. He has been called by the Lord to lay down his life for a woman, to nurture and serve and love her. He is called to admonish and submit to and be kind to and encourage and all the other one anothers that Scripture commands for brothers and sisters in Christ.

Ben already knows how that is supposed to work for a husband; he has learned these things from his dad. He didn’t need a course in marriage or the input of a host of men in clerical collars. He didn’t need to read a list of books or answer 165 questions. He learned it while watching a father who not only works hard to provide for all of us but who changes diapers, washes dishes, vacuums the floor, cleans up vomit and diarrhea, mows the grass, and who would rather be hiking in the woods with a line-up of children than watching football on television or pontificating about how many angels can sit on the head of a pin. Ben knows that reading the Word to his family and leading them in worship is the most important thing he can do for this woman and that she won’t take him a bit seriously unless he lives it himself.

One more week.

Only one week until we gather to celebrate, once again, the family God has given to us. We will rejoice in His goodness to us in guiding us and going before us as we have sought, in our feeble ways, to serve Him. We will laugh as we enjoy the wit and wisdom of grandchildren. We will hug and kiss and embrace our loved ones and will welcome in a new daughter, yet another Mrs. Campbell.

This is the way it is supposed to be, I keep telling myself. Changes come as they are supposed to do. It doesn’t mean they will be easy to accept, especially for a mom. But they will come and with them are all the future blessings to be received when we live by faith! I honestly can’t wait!

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Being Fruitful in the Kingdom Garden, Part Four

“And what of those children who have wandered from the fold and as a result have suffered consequences that perhaps will affect them for a lifetime? Is that not the time to extend grace and mercy to our children, bearing their burdens as the Lord surely bears our own? We are to restore our children in a spirit of meekness and gentleness, caring for them even as our heavenly Father cares for us. “And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)”