A Magnolia's Heart Beats

A Night To Remember, A Night to Reflect

Welcome to the Family, Uncle Chuck!

It's official. March 28, 2009, at 6:30 p.m., our family welcomed a new member to the fold. My mother's sister, Melanie, married Chuck.

Melanie and Chuck met over a year ago and Chuck moved to Mississippi from California a few months ago. He's a great guy. Funny, sensitive and very caring about others.

The ceremony was beautiful. It took place outside and although it was a bit nippy, it was bearable. The harpist played some beautiful music, including one of my favorites, The Prayer. One of my favorite versions of this song is sung by Charlotte Church and Josh Groban. Melanie's five year old granddaughter, Gracie, was the flower girl, and she was just precious! She couldn't figure out which lane to walk down to scatter the rose petals. There were three possiblities and we finally got her pointed in the right direction. Brooke, Melanie's daughter, was her maid of honor, and Chuck's Father was here from California as his son's best man. My cousin Brett, Melanie's middle child, who is 25, read Colossians 3:12-17.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

This is a precious Scripture to me, and quickened in my heart as I heard it read. I think it's a very beautiful Scripture and an awesome one for a wedding. Great thoughts to think on for husband and wife. I will be meditating on this in the weeks to come, posting some of my personal thoughts here.

My son-in-love was the official wedding photographer but had to leave to do another job (his actual employment is as a photographer and one of the photographers was in the hospital, so he had to do a prom later in the evening.) He did a great a great job. He left Kristyn, my bonus daughter, with the camera and she finished up. He got all the way through with the cutting of the cake and drinking of the punch. I think it may have been champagne, not sure. I wasn't in there for those pictures. There were so many people there and it was a great time to visit with family and meet Chuck's family as we mingled over food. Food? Okay - TONS of food. Delicious food.

The wedding was at a beautiful home where events like this take place. It's current owners bought it and restored it in 2003. The gardens were beautiful and the home and reception hall were beautifully decorated. After dark it looked like something out of a fairy tale, it was so beautiful.

Other than spending time with the bride and groom, some of my favorite parts of the evening were talking with Brett and his fiance Casey and my Aunt Susan and Uncle Jimmy. Jimmy is headed to M. D. Anderson next week regarding the issue mentioned in this post. Jimmy has been reading my blog and asked me when I was going to write a book. Hah hah. Dreams do come true and I suppose I will attempt a devotional one day. Their twin boys, James and John, age 8, were the Program Attendants. They did an excellent job handing out programs. To connect the dots, Momma, Melanie & Jimmy are siblings, in that order of birth.

I loved getting to spend some more time with my Mother and Jennifer, too.

I'm reminded how precious marriage is and pray that as we come up on celebrating our 18th year together that we'll be having our 50th anniversary at the same house Melanie and Chuck were married in. Praying praying praying.

My bonus for the evening was also seeing my grandbabies, 18 month old Nolan and 5 month old Liam. Big boys. Oh how precious they are! We took them to Ma-Maw Jean's, Kristyn's grandmother on her mother's side, for the evening and picked them up on the way home. They were having a birthday celebration for Kristyn's Ma-Maw and Kristyn's bonus dad, Daniel. All the kids there are growing up so quickly, just like Nolie and Fish. They don't stay little long! I can remember when Kristyn's 19 year old brother was Nolie's age! She also has Jacob, age 13 and Luke, age 10. Kristyn's aunt and uncle were there with their two, Anna Claire, age 6, and Adah, age 16 months. Oh my, where does time go?

Magee didn't look too bad in light of the current weather situation. A tornado hit Thursday morning and was pretty destructive. It was an F-3, I think. Although they are still under a boil water notice, I saw lots of electicrity back on, and we saw some pretty high water just off the highway where there usually isn't water, which shows they got even more rain than we did. 9 inches were recorded for our town for the month of March, and I think we probably got 5 of them last week. We could see where the cleanup has started and are praying for those who were so hard hit.

Yes, this was definitely a night to remember and a night for reflection.

I could see the Father's love everwhere I went.

Father, thank You for bringing Uncle Chuck into Aunt Melanie's life. She's so happy with him and I'm so glad to see how happy they are together. Please bless their union and help them to continue to grow in love and happiness. Protect them as they travel to the mountains for their honeymoon and give Chuck's family traveling mercies, too, as they make their way back to California and Georgia. Help me to remember how important the vows Steve and I made before You are, and to honor them in my heart always. Help me to take the above Scripture to heart and to make it be for Your glory. In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen.