We did it...we released our last child...

Last summer our daughter Abby was married. At the wedding we heard one statement almost as much as we heard congratulations. The statement? "See you next summer at Caleb's wedding!" We just laughed. Even Caleb and Brittany laughed about it. However, I should have seen what was coming. I mean during family pictures, Brittany was welcomed in. We all knew that one day she would be family. During the reception we found Brittany writing this on our car:

So, when Caleb first approached Brian that he was ready to propose I shouldn't have been surprised. Yet, I was. I knew he was ready, he is the most level headed person I know. He is calculated and does nothing on impulse. This was my baby boy wanting to get married. He was barely 19; how could he be ready to be married? I mean just a few years ago he didn't want to even consider dating. He considered girls to be too much drama; he was a horrible hugger (seriously it was like hugging a tree!); how could this boy be ready for marriage? But, he was and is. He found the one his heart longed for and when that happened he transformed! What a fun thing that has been to watch.

So, I had several months to prepare my heart for the big day; the day our baby boy would become a husband. I'm not going to lie, there were tears involved in this process. Never once were those tears because I was sad about who he was marrying. No, the tears were bittersweet, end of an era type tears. We home-schooled, so I never had those first day of kindergarten tears, nope those tears came the day we dropped him off at college. (I had 13 years to build up a good reservoir of tears for that one).  And so these tears were much like that, the tears that come with releasing a child.

I knew as the day got nearer that I needed to do something to "give my son away". I knew I needed to assure Brittany that I wasn't going to be one of those mother-in-laws. Apron strings, that is what I came up with. So, I went to my friend Google and found another mom(Linda Weber) who also wanted to cut the apron strings for her son and his bride. She wrote poems to her new daughters-in-law, so I tweaked this idea into a poem for Brittany. I read it at the rehearsal dinner, I knew I needed to do this before the wedding; I needed her to know there were literally no strings attached. I was shaking quite a lot, not from nerves, but from the emotion of what I was doing. Watch and see what I did...

The wedding day was glorious. Were there a few bumps along the way...yes. When I think about June 21st though all I dwell on is the love that oozed out of these two. My son appeared several inches taller, he looked like a man ready to be a husband. Before Caleb saw Brittany I took him aside and told him that she was absolutely glowing and for him to be prepared for how stunning she looked. Later I asked him if I was right. His response will be forever engrained in my heart. He said "No, you were wrong...you underplayed how beautiful she is." My husband and I just marveled at the way he looked at her all day, the way he prayed with her before the wedding, the way he beamed.

We have only seen one picture the photographer took that day, but I am pretty sure nothing can beat this picture. This picture captures the day perfectly. At the end of the day it was all about Caleb and Brittany and the beauty that  God was painting in the two of them....

Photo credit Amber Rae Photography