A Belated Wedding Toast to My Sister on Her Anniversary

My dearest sister,
Happy anniversary! It's hard to believe that it has already been two years since your wedding day. And what a beautiful day it was! I know it wasn't the wedding you had originally planned. In fact, through all the changes with the dates and venues, you may have planned about five different weddings. How many brides can say that? I'm pretty sure that even fewer can attest to having been faced with the hard decisions that you had to make. For you, they weren't hard choices at all though. Daddy was sick. That awful c word--cancer--was looming over our heads. It just wasn't going to be the same without him there, so the wedding was moved from December to October. Then at the last minute, it was moved to the hospital, so daddy could leave the Intensive Care Unit long enough to attend. I remember daddy getting upset at first. He didn't want to do anything to upstage your and Carl's BIG day. No one could have anticipated that things would take such a sudden turn with his health though. I don't know if I ever really told you how proud I was of the choice you and Carl made. It was one of the most beautiful, selfless acts I've ever seen. In fact, your wedding was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen...

I didn't take a single picture that day. My mind was in a million places. But your photographer did a beautiful job of capturing the wedding. She even shared some prayers, tears, and smiles with us along the way. And can you believe that sweet hospital janitor out there on the morning of your wedding cleaning the courtyard? Or the nurse helping to get daddy into his tuxedo? Or the numerous others who pitched in to make it such a glorious day? And the prayers that went up! Our parents' strength! The love that filled that place! The lives that were touched! It really was a remarkable day...

Sure the rehearsal dinner was pizza in the ICU waiting area, the wedding took place in the courtyard of the hospital, and the reception was in the hospital cafeteria. None of that mattered though. Daddy once told me when I was in the midst of planning my own wedding, "All that will matter at the end of the day, Jenn, is that you're married and ready to begin your new life together."

That's what you and Carl did on October 6, 2012! You got married and started a beautiful journey together. It's a journey that began out of love and sacrifice. The whole wedding was filled with love. It was in the choices you and Carl made leading up to the wedding. It was in the example of marriage that our own parents and Carl's parents had set for us all. It was in family and friends pulling together to make the day a success. It was in the acts of the hospital staff to make it all happen. It was in the lives that were immeasurably touched that day. It was in the prayers of our pastor and his family. It was in God's presence surrounding us. It was in daddy's determination to get out of the bed and walk his baby girl down the aisle even when he had been told he couldn't do it. And most importantly... It was in the feelings that you and Carl had then and still have for each other.



So since I never got an opportunity to give you an official toast on your wedding day, and we all know how much I hate public speaking even in the best of circumstances...

I'd just like to take this opportunity to say...

To the bride and groom! I love you both dearly. May God's presence continue to surround you. May you continue to bask in a beautiful love for the things that really matter in life--faith, family, friends, and each other! May you have many more years of wonderful memories together! I know that daddy is looking down on both of you and smiling. We are all so proud of the love you share! It really is one that epitomizes this precious passage of scripture...

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Much love and happiness to you both!

Happy anniversary!