More Wedding Photos--The Privilege of Family

  I loved what a friend, Glen Asbury, wrote recently about family. My sister Iva copied it and shared it.

Basically he wrote how these days are evil, and all around us there are things to dismay and genuinely anger us. But he advised that we try not to keep focused on those negative things, but rather take joy in things that are indeed good--such as the simple act of  family getting together for dinner, imperfect though each one is, and enjoying each other.

Small but important things like this, Glen said, are good and are what we need to remember to be grateful for.

That's what happened today. Ruth and Daddy Lucas did not want a big wedding, but family was invited and a few friends. 

It's a privilege to be part of a family, however imperfect we each one are.

Being part of the Lucas family means we are included. And how much that means!

Jonathan's sister Esther made this lovely cake.

Well, this particular spoonful was a bit of a disaster!!! :) :)

Let's just say men have a tendency to not be quite as dainty as ladies!

This one went better!! 

There is a little story behind the bouquet. Ruth's brother was about to be married on Valentine's Day this year, but he ended up in the hospital and passed away. His fiance had a wedding bouquet ready but couldn't use it. So she sent the flowers to Ruth to carry for her wedding instead! Katherine did a little rearranging, but isn't that a beautiful bouquet! Ruth waited 78 years for this day to belong to somebody. 

Each of our children took turns congratulating their grandpa and Ruth,

  and welcoming Ruth to the family. 

Tall Danny hugging his grandpa. 

 Hannah and Ruth.

Friends who live near Ruth and who came to the wedding 

Pastor and Mrs. Kearney

The children all helped clean up and take down tables and chairs. 

Meanwhile, outdoors a few boys (and maybe a certain Jon McVey) got some balloons involved in decorating Daddy Lucas's jeep. 

Balloons were stuck in the door handles, tied on behind, and stuffed into the exhaust pipe. 

Every vehicle around was honking as the new couple took off for Garden of the Gods for another photo shot. 

Our Tim was the photographer following behind the festooned car, and Jonathan and I followed, too, to get a photo ourselves. It won't be more than a month before we will have had to move away.

Daddy Lucas's jeep turning at 30th Street.

The snow last night made it such a pretty backdrop.

We got a photo of us, too, but unfortunately my corsage had fallen down funny and I didn't know it!

I guess that's just a little picture of life right now!

After a tailbone injury on top of everything else right now, I was just glad I was able to attend and enjoy the wedding without too much pain until afterward.

Wedding of Daddy Lucas and Ruth

  Today was a happy day for Jonathan's father!

Not many men dare to get married just before they turn 87 years old!

But this one did.  

It was just a small, private wedding with family members and a few friends in the parsonage basement gathering room.

Granddaughter Rebecca lighting the candles. 

I thought Rebecca was beautiful. 

There was quite a boutonniere-pinning ceremony at the last minute.

Sam must have forgotten his comb!!!!! 

Since the other girls were involved in music, Crystal's grandpa asked if she would accept the honor of pinning on his boutonniere, and after pnning her own father's boutonniere, Crystal got to go back where her grandpa and the pastor were waiting

to try to pin their boutonnieres on, too! 

My turn, I guess! Dear Katherine! This wedding came together so nicely because of her quiet, helpful, creative help.  

Crystal's cousin Candace had driven from Missouri here with her, and Jonathan's dad had invited her to come to the wedding, too! So she helped with pinning corsages on the girls and videoing the wedding.

I caught a couple snaps of the girls practicing their wedding music in the hall. 

Last minute practice! Then the girls went out to the gathering room and began the prelude with "Blessed Assurance" and "As the Deer."

Then "Love Divine" was the cue for the men to get ready.

Pastor Kearney coming in...

... to the tune of "Canon in D."

Daddy Lucas about to pop his buttons!

Ruth lost her last sibling just a few months ago, but she had a cousin who lives in town and who was willing to come in with her and "give her away."

The vows.

 

The wedding ceremony was extremely simple and brief. Within minutes, they were pronounced man and wife.

And the kiss.

After which Jonathan's dad and Ruth had asked if Jonathan and I would sing an old love song called "Together."

After the loss of Mama and one and a half years of loneliness, the word "together" means so much to Daddy Lucas. 

It also means a lot to Ruth, who has never been married, and to whom it means so much to actually have a family to be part of now!

I love her already!

I remember how much the word "together" meant to me when Jonathan finally arrived in Kiev, Ukraine, and how bad I felt when he flew back to the States after our six week courtship, so that he could work and get ready to provide for a new wife.  

Will South Dakota Feel Like Home?

 

Before our last trip to South Dakota, I prayed for peace about moving there. This whole thing has seemed so surreal to me that it has been hard to feel sure that this place in South Dakota can truly be "home" to us. It might be God's will, based on what Jonathan feels, but does that mean it will feel like home? Can I be at peace?

After slogging through snow and gumbo, dry paths and willowy river banks for two and a half weeks, this still unfinished house in South Dakota was feeling more and more like home. It is still majorly primitive, but we are getting used to it, and finding a sort of routine.

And then one morning as I was working in the fifth wheel, most likely cleaning up after breakfast and thinking about a lunch menu, I saw this dove sitting outside my window. 

And I remembered my prayer for peace about this move and about this new home place.

And God sent a dove of peace to perch right outside my window! 

Small thing, perhaps, but not for me. Small things can mean a lot. 

And it meant even more when we had finally worked through an enormous amount of rigamarole to find a spot that the postal service would approve to put our mailbox (big enough for packages since our lane is too long for the postal carrier to deliver).

No, the postal service said, we may not put it at the end of our driveway because it was on a steep hill that was too close to a curve, and the road is a major route for semis. Here's one passing just after we set up our mailbox.

The postal service wanted us to set our mailbox way down the road, across the river, and way back inside a gate on someone else's private property by an already existing mailbox.

Excuse me??? 

Finally, we worked out something with our postal service that worked for both them and us.

I can have a nice walk through fields, hills, and draws to get to the mail box.

High fives!  

And having our own mailbox does wonders for me feeling like this may become "home" again after all.

"Resolved to Proceed"

Those first two days up there were cold and miserable. But Jonathan and Danny built up the fire and started right to work.

Jonathan got almost all the plumbing in, especially all the drains, and most of the water pipe, too.  

Danny helped finish framing--even into the evening hours which we lit with big lights connected to extension cords.  

More plumbing. 

All on his own Danny reorganized the basement and swept it up, me helping as I was able.  

Danny climbing across a steel beam to pay Jonathan a visit!

One highlight was when Jonathan would roast some of the big jar of organic, raw cashews he'd bought from Costco. 

A snack that even I was allowed to eat!

This is the kind of serving dish a man comes up with while his lady is back at the 5th wheel! 

For a week and a half Jonathan, Danny, and I worked there by ourselves, but then Tim and another young man came up for a few days. Tim and Danny put up the fireproof drywall between garage and house. This will help the house stay warmer at this point. 

Jonathan cutting gas pipe. He put in nearly all the propane pipes for our stove and dryer.

The young men dragging a dead tree up to the house to saw for firewood. The fire was eating up wood like it owned a sawmill!

Last Monday Jonathan took Danny to Rosebud to unload drywall and other materials for the remodel job there, and they worked there all day. It is a pain to have to unscrew the boards over the basement door every time they want to unload things into the basement, but because of rampant vandalism we have to unboard the door and then board it back up after each work day. It's one reason we chose to not live there but instead to find a place in the country off the reservation.

The road by mission headquarters still has snow piled in massive piles.

Again another storm came in before we left. The days were pretty miserable, but we just kept working. 

I kept thinking about the motto of my senior class when I graduated from Allegheny Wesleyan College, the words of William Bradford. 

"Committed to the will of God, and resolved to proceed."

We're no William Bradford, but the words of this motto are helping to hold me steady. 

Simply committed to the will of God," come snow, come wind, come weather,

come cancer, come hardship, come storm,

"committed," and "resolved to proceed."