We've been planning this weekend for 30
some years. Friends with the parents of the groom, it has always
been our intention to dance at our children's weddings. This weekend
we'll get the chance. Josh and Cara are getting married.
Reggie's been planning and thinking and
organizing and fretting and smiling from ear to ear for a year or so.
Getting along with the in-laws has made this all much easier, if easy
can be used when planning a rehearsal dinner in NYC when you live
outside LA. Small decisions and big decisions all received the same
careful attention. Josh is doing this one time and one time only...
it's going to be perfect.
While she was
Suzi-sitting, Reggie and I gave lots of thought to the decorations
for the rehearsal dinner. Catalogs and Google were perused and items
considered and discarded as we interrupted ourselved with
memories.....
Big Cuter and Josh
in diapers, jumping on a bed in Acapulco. They were so little; when
did they grow bigger (much much bigger) than their moms? The two
boys going eyeball to eyeball with the iguanas which lived in the
greenery surrounding our casita's patio; it was a toss-up – who was
more scared of whom? Or should it be who was more intrigued by the
other? These were very curious boys.
That curiosity led
Josh to collect a multitude of graduate degrees in the Southeast.
It's not easy to live so far from your children, as TBG and I can
attest. It makes it easier to have them so far away when you know
that they are surrounded by love. And Josh and Cara have lots of
that.
He's a trailing
spouse to her dream job, and luckily they are both as happy as clams.
Good work and good people and now they are getting married.
Registered for housewares and camping gear, their lives together will
be filled with adventures and domesticity. It's a perfect
combination.
Hotel reservations
were made 5 minutes from the festivities' venues. The rehearsal
dinner should end in time for us to watch Indiana trounce Kentucky
(you heard it here first!) in the Sweet 16 and the wedding on
Saturday doesn't conflict with anything we really need to watch
(sigh.... it's the only up-side to Georgetown's loss last week). Old
friends will be there to share the joy... and the basketball. We
haven't watched sports with Orb Kcrob for decades. We can hardly
wait.
Spending two days
with our own bride-and-groom-to-be on our way to NYC has put us in a
celebratory mood. How lucky we four parents are – our kids are on
their way to a lifetime of love and devotion and friendship and
happiness and we're sending them off with a fabulous party.
Alongside the new clothes and the registries and the menu planning
and the logistics we're floating on the love.
And there's so much
love. Watching Little Cuter and SIR tend to each other with delicacy
and compassion filled our souls. Listening to Reggie describe her
kids with similar adjectives and smiles did the same. We've avoided
a landmine – we like our children's choices. I can't imagine what
we'd do if our kids chose a partner we didn't like.... or worse, one
who didn't like us.
Instead, tomorrow
Reggie and Bob will welcome a girl into their all-boys lives, a
talented, beautiful, thoughtful and kind girl who loves their son to
distraction. Shared passions and interests and expectations and
attitudes will send them on their way with full hearts. The best
wishes of family and friends will ring in their ears long after the
orchestra has played the last dance. Memories will linger and life
will go on and, in a few months, Josh's parents will come to Tucson
to watch our kids join their hands in marriage.
Where has the time
gone? I'm not quite sure. What I am sure of is that love makes the
world go round.... and TBG and I are going to be surrounded by it
this weekend.
Best wishes, Josh
and Cara. We wish you joy and happiness and eons and tons of love.
Unrelated to today's post, but in a macro view, all is connected...Fellow member of the PTSD club, I read a truly wonderful and positive article in the NY Times. So much of what you have shared here is reflected in scientific studies quoted: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/magazine/post-traumatic-stresss-surprisingly-positive-flip-side.html?pagewanted=6&_r=1&adxnnl=1&hpw&adxnnlx=1332547213-Y8t5kYj/Ty6ji5nclyk6XA Enjoy our lovely spring orange blossoms, just the scent for a happy wedding! Best to you.
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