A Wedding

To our girls - a chance to be a flower girl , eat cake, drink Shirley Temples, dance til you are falling down, have tons of grown ups telling you how cute you are, run around with cousins and other flower girls, put flowers in your hair, get some candy, count the gifts, try to mess with all of the DJs buttons and switches until people chase you, stay up late in the dark.

To Liam - warm, humid, noisy, really noisy, confining, too many strange people, too many beloved people who aren't in the places they are usually but instead all together, noisy, really noisy, warm, crowded, too much sun outside, too dark inside, lots of people greeting him, saying how handsome, touching him, unfamiliar smells, noisy, noisy, noisy.

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We had a babysitter for the reception so we could go as a family to the ceremony and the dinner, but spare the 2 littles (and ourselves!  Who are we kidding?) the long night. These are the moments when we realize how difficult this special needs life makes it to do things as a family. Next time we won't torment the sweet boy. We will leave him with one of his wonderful caregivers. And we will miss our boy the whole time and feel sad when we take a photo all spiffed up b/c he will be missing.

And yet these are also the moments when we realize that not only has God directed our journey, but he has placed so many incredible, loving, and caring people into our lives.  He allowed me to see early on that although I stay at home to care for our kids, if I want this family to have normalcy and Liam to be happy and thrive, I need to share Liam's care with these amazing helpers.  May God continue to send us such helpers as needed and may he guard our hearts and minds that we will look at such circumstances remembering that we (and Liam) are beloved children of God and not become discouraged.