A New Beginning

A year and a half ago, our little family went to the Cherry Blossom festival in Washington D.C. While there, we hoped to see my brother Ian and his family. When I reached out to him about our visit he was distracted and stressed, but he agreed that we should get together. I wasn't sure what was happening, I just told him that we would stay in a hotel and looked forward to having them join us on the route.

The morning of the parade my brother called. He told me the source of his unrest: he and his wife were separated and likely heading for divorce. My heart hurt for my brother, for his wife, for my niece, and for my nephew. The divorce was finalized in February of this year.

In March, Ian met someone. Soon after that they were officially dating. I started to get to know her long-distance over the summer. I was impressed with her love of literature, her deep and articulate comments, her obvious affection for my little brother. Through the magic of Facebook, I watched their relationship grow and blossom. I saw how well her two girls got along with his two kids. I read the beautifully written posts about how wonderful she thought my brother was.

I met her in person at the beginning of September. She was warm and kind and generous. Her girls were sweet and took to us right away. She and I got along swimmingly and had so much to talk about right off the bat.

This past weekend, Ian and Sherlin were married. There were lots of fabulous moments, some very exciting (in an oh-no-how-do-we-solve-this-emergency-that-has-popped-up kind of way) moments, and some deeply touching moments. I had the privilege of serving as a bridesmaid. My main jobs, other than walking and looking cheerful and serene in a gray dress, were to edit and sing. I love when I get to play to my strengths.

And now, a slew of pictures!

My beautiful bunch waiting for the ceremony to begin, photo taken by my brother Jordan's girlfriend, Leah.

The newlywed couple, photo taken by the bride.

My handsome brother and my adorable nephew, photo taken by...someone.

Before this weekend, I had one nephew and one niece on my side of the family. Now I have one nephew and three nieces! Here are two of them, Aeva and Clara, who danced down the aisle as flower girls. Photo taken by my sister-in-law Falisha.

The somewhat distracted wedding party, photo taken by Falisha.

Here are the bridesmaids, reinforcing gender stereotypes as we imitate the groomsmen, photo also taken by Falisha. 

We should have taken a family picture since we had all the siblings and my parents and Grandma there. But we didn't. I'm kind of kicking myself over that. Oh well, at least we all appear separately in the pictures, even if it's in the periphery.

After the wedding, we headed to my brother's church building for the reception. It was a fun party with delicious food and lively dancing. Phoebe, Aeva, Clara, and Sophie enjoyed the photo booth props, as seen in these pictures taken by Leah.

Here I am with my two sisters-in-law. This photo was taken by my Mom and is one of my favorite from that day.

Jordan baked one of the tiers of this cake. Sherlin used her mad skills to decorate it. I don't know who took this picture...

For me, one of the highlights of the reception was getting to sing with Bryan. Sherlin asked us to sing I Knew This Would Be Love, but I couldn't find the sheet music anywhere. We agreed that I would learn it by ear, but Bryan wasn't comfortable doing that, so I prepared for a solo. Two of the three hours of the drive down to the wedding were spent singing in the car. Most of that time Bryan sang a really beautiful harmony. I asked if he was going to sing with me and he said he didn't know.

Thirty minutes before I was supposed to sing the song, I asked my parents to watch our kids while they ate and danced at the reception so Bryan could come listen to me sing and give critiques. That's when he decided to make it a duet. The song was nice as a solo, but it was beautiful as a duet. I love singing with Bryan. Our voices blend so well. I'm thankful to my brother Jordan for taking this picture of us.

Congratulations Ian and Sherlin! I'm so happy for your whole family!