Ruthie's Wedding Week

The boys and I went down to my parent's for the big wedding!  Ruth's my sister.  She was born when I was almost 18.  My other sister Tonya and I have totally different childhood memories than  Ruthie does.  My parents weren't saved when we were younger so Tonya and I remember drinking, partying and worldly lives.  When I was around 8, my Mom got saved and a few years later my Dad got saved.  There were big changes in their lives and our memories began to change.  In 1985,  my parents sold their house in CT and moved to PA to work at a camp for inner city teens.  This was a very huge thing for them to do.  They gave up a very "comfortable" life and moved into a very gross house and left all their family in CT.  But the Lord blessed their move.  One huge blessing was a little daughter in 1988. 

Ruth Maria was added to our family and she has become a close, dear friend to my parents as she has gotten older.  Ruthie's childhood was so different from mine.  She was born in PA and only has memories of PA, she never saw the yucky affects the world can have on a home (alcohol, smoking, etc) by your parents,  she is very open and talkative with my parents (I wasn't as a child, I was more into school and activities).  

Two years ago, Ruth went to Ambassador Bible College and met the man of her dreams!  They were engaged and waited a year to get married, while Rey finished his last year of school.  The day finally was upon us!  

Thursday before the wedding, the boys, my sister Tonya, Mom, dear friends Linda and Erin and I started setting up for the wedding day!  Such fun together as we put up tuelle, lights, flowers, arbors, tables, etc.  Friday morning was the rehearsal.  We flew through that and went back to camp and had a fun meal together.  So much fun meeting Rey's family and friends.  His family are missionaries in Mexico.  Steve, Maria and Melinda are his siblings and what fun meeting another group of young people that are striving to do right.  Many games of volleyball and basketball together made for some great laughs and fun memories!  That night we went to the last revival meeting at church (they had revival meetings with Ron Comfort all week!).  The highlight for me, Mark showed up during the meeting and I got to give him a huge hug after church (he couldn't come with us due to work).  We set up the auditorium and went back to our cabin at camp.  We were all so tired and went to bed early (11:30, the night before we started playing volleyball at 11:30!  Man, I was wiped out,, getting way too old for such late nights!!! but was so fun.  Alot of the groomsmen were from Ambassador so they had tons of young energy!)  

Saturday morning!  The big day is here!  I had breakfast with Mark in the kitchen and went to the girl's cabin (Rey's sisters, his aunt, and Ruthie's college friends were all staying there) and one girl did my hair.  It was SO fun being with all the girls.  Rey's Mom was there too getting her make up done.  What fun times!  I kept thinking of what it would be like to have daughters to do these fun things with!  Maybe grand daughters :)  I simply loved how the girl Molly did my hair,,, I was jumping all over with excited thanks!  (I think I may have overwhelmed her a bit!)   Luke and I then went over to church for early pictures.  

Ruthie was in one of the rooms getting ready.  She looked so beautiful!  She was so excited!  "I'm going to kiss him today!" she kept saying!  Ruthie had never kissed before so this was VERY looked forward to.  She made that commitment to have her wedding kiss be her first and did very good keeping that!  

We took our pictures and went back to her room to wait for things to start.  I could see different guests arriving.  How fun!  Dad's siblings were all there,, I ran out and greeted them all!  Mom's siblings started too, so lots more kisses and hugs to give out!  Such a fun occasion to see family again!

One o'clock !  It's time,, we lined up and started going down the aisle.  So fun!  We were all up front and soon Ruthie was coming down to see her man!  I tried SO hard not to cry but when Dad lifted her veil and said sweet things to her with tears streaming down his cheeks,  I couldn't help but bawl!  The vows were said, rings exchanged and now the big kiss was allowed, "Rey you may kiss your bride!"  Rey stood there admiring Ruth and kissed her.  It was so sweet and innocent!  Of course, Tonya and I were crying again!  Such a great wedding!!! 
 

We went to the dinner after, made lots of memories and Rey and Ruth were off!  Off to start their adventure of life as a married couple!  What a great wedding!!!  It was so romantic and God-honoring!