A few random things from the wedding

The wedding went very well and was most beautiful, joyful, inclusive and tasteful (due to other people's designing and planning skills).  The sermon was great, too, and we sang a lovely hymn. The mother of the groom brought her military execution skills to implementing practical things.  I learned the phrase:  "Time spent on reconi is seldom wasted." ("reconi" being "reconnaissance").

If you must know, the mother of the bride went into basket case mode right away.  When Stefan's little brother came down the isle with the rings with he girls, I was done for and never quite recovered the rest of the day.  Crying is very bad for me, but I never got a headache, at least.  I don't think I look very good on any of the pictures, and this could have been part of the problem.  Other than that I think getting done up is not something that really helps.  I will gladly keep things simple.  I am desperately trying to get myself untagged from all kinds of pictures on facebook.  But with the onslaught of pictures, it is hard to keep up with that.  Ack.

There were other people who complained about how ugly, plain, chubby, etc. they are.  I started quoting them a song from Mattias Claudius, "Ich freue mich und danke Gott"  (http://ingeb.org/Lieder/ichdanke.html), in which among other things, you thank God for your very own face, just the way it is.  They told me I was whining about my own weight and was being hypocritical (--that's the German youth for you, nowadays, what can I say :).  What is it with this finding of discrepancies. :)).

Mother of the bride was not the only basket case.  I was told some young men were crying on the other side of the church and someone was wondering "why".  I cannot quite imagine how someone could not know "why" right away. But maybe it's not that obvious.  Stefan's friends are nowhere near over his death.  Something like this will stick with them for life, like for us.

There were some others dissolved in tears around my neck later on, and I tried to comfort them the best I could talking about the other wedding banquet, which was on my soul anyhow from all this preparing for a wedding... -- It was all a little much for the emotional capacity.  You may pray for this happy, sad congregation we had, and the youth of our towns.  The young people keep grieving just like the immediate family. They lose too many friends.  But basically we tried all day not to push too many emotional buttons.

On the other hand, the  bridal couple was completely radiant, and we have been given such a great gift in them, and they in each other.  The groom was shining like the sun when the vows were said to him.  I have never quite seen such a thing.  God bless their union.  To have such a marvelous daughter and excellent God-son/son-in-law is a most astonishing blessing.  For them and all of us, it is also most wonderful to have so many great sets of families, who all came to the wedding.  The openness in adoption has certainly worked very well for all involved.

There was also an experienced social worker present that day, who talked generally about some cases, and remarked on how this was really the way to do it.  Too many children have no roots and no good, meaningful connections.  I can tell you, as an adoptive parent, you really do have to learn to share, but that's not such a bad thing.  As much as we say that your adopted children are your very own children, there are differences.   But now they are founding their own family, and we are all part of their lives.  Most of all, if we are oriented toward the Lord, we will know that we are all blood brothers and sisters and part of the same family, anyways.  Thanks be to him for all great gifts. And his will  we receive in this context, even if we do not understand.

Renaturalisierung/ Reunions

I learned a newly coined German word today:  "Renaturalisierung".  It would be in English:  "Renaturalizing".  The word came up when we were at the beaver dam and someone thought the filtration system of the water there was something worth remarking on.  Germans always seem to have technical ideas when they are in nature. Practical and romantic people at the same time.  It would be an example of  "Renaturalisierung".  It is supposed to be THE concept.  -- OK.  I don't think I totally got it.

It is so amazing to have a reunion after all these times and to meet the young folk, one's blood relatives whom you barely know or have never met, your elders who know all the stories.  If we can be so happy, how will it be when we are with the Lord?

It makes me think of the adopted persons, too, and how much they love their birthfamilies.

Weekend notes

It was a somewhat momentous weekend.
For it we were blessed with very fine weather.

First of all we had a large gathering of women at my house for Andrea, including her birth-mother, her sisters, her birth-grandmother, our Oma, our deceased son's birth-mother and more family, friends and neighbors, also the wife of our dear pastor (who is quite ill), who baptized both bride and groom,  the groom's mother, safely back from Afghanistan.  It was a wonderful to have them all together.  We had a lot of fun and the Erdbeerbowle disappeared in no time.  I should have made twice as much (or three times as much).

At the end of it I was kind of emotionally drained but grateful for some many great people in my life.  Really, truly, truly.  The birthfamilies, especially, have my complete respect.  They have been  tremendous over the years.

Marilyn P.  brought me some begonias, which are very special. 

At the end, I just sat on my front porch and listened to some Luther hymns on my I Pod and discovered one I had never listened to before.

"The Unwise tongue of man may say,
we give God honor royal.
But by their actions men display
a life that is disloyal
to God's most holy will untrue...
by the things they do;
they abandoned virtue."

Interesting.  Never sung one like that.  Not one with the word "virtue" in it.  Dr. Patrick from Augustin College always talks about virtue in relation to a philosophy of  justice (vs. "values").  I told him, it did not sound like Lutheran-speak to me, but another professor there, disagreed.  I wonder what it is in German.

Also, I managed to read all of Horton's "Christless Christianity".  Interesting, too.  I understand some of my friends' expressions better now.  It seems like a very worthwhile critique of American religion.  I don't find that I have been part of what he analyzes in the cultures I have inhabited, personally, to a great extent.  The closest that comes to it, is my Mormon friend's definition of religion as total involvement, laws for everything and faith based on emotion.  I am thinking about how it does or does not apply to a large church I am familiar with.

My husband has also scaled new height of achievement. Since the men were not welcome at the ladies' party, some were put to tree felling and mulch making.  This is a new skill for Martin, jack of all possible trades.  View the accomplished task. 

He was also very grateful at the end of the day, that all was done without injury. He also quite pleased with his pile of mulch.