Unexpected Blessings -- No Chance for Rain!

The past weeks have been packed with family times filled with laughter and the labor of love and conversations and goodnight prayers and real life and the expected stressors related to the amazing celebration of our daughter, Danelle's wedding.  Overriding and resonating through all of it was God’s incredible grace and presence....I am sharing a few of the unexpected blessings.

I was met by our 22 year old daughter with a huge hug and the words, "I am getting married in just 28 days!"  I had flown ahead to be with Danelle and help in any way I could.  Almost every morning she greeted me with, "Just....days until I am married!"  Each time my heart sped up.  First, because our little girl was getting married, and second, because there was so much to do.  Phil who was still in Quito asked me, "Will I be overwhelmed when I come?"  Just coming to the states can feel overwhelming.  I gave him a definite, "Yes."
 
An outdoor wedding on our land in Missouri sounded incredibly special and romantic.  In reality, an outdoor wedding meant "special and romantic" plus lots of labor of love. 

It is flower time!!  Nate's family, the Prevettes arrived in time
to help cut all the rose stems...under water of course!

Tuesday night wedding crews facilitated by sister Chelsea
began and ended in prayer.  Here Aunt Gracie is sewing the burlap table runners. 
She and Aunt Janie, Phil's sisters, baked and decorated the beautiful wedding cake.

The wedding would not have been the same without all the hard work done by Danelle, Nate, Chelsea, and the weekly Tuesday night wedding crew; then by family and friends leading up to the wedding day.  At one point our niece, Beth looked at me and said, "No wonder people spend thousands of dollars on their wedding.  They didn't have a family that could help them do everything." 

Due to how busy we were, we have very few "before" pictures.
Danelle's brothers took a moment for a bit of fun!

Nate is working on the burlap bows for the chairs. 
Many hands labored in love to make the bows 

Some of the Thursday work crew:  Uncle Tim, Jordan Douce,

Cousin Joe, Chelsea Douce, Cousin Becky, Violeta Douce

Family and friends came from Missouri, Texas, Canada, Chicago, Michigan, W. Virginia, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio.  They pitched in wherever it was needed in a variety of tasks from lending their gators and trucks to putting mulch down, hanging signs, parking cars, setting up for the reception, moving 240 chairs down to the ceremony meadow and back up to the reception meadow, shuttling guests to the ceremony and reception, replacing the front door on our house, moving and setting up a sound system, setting up a stage, helping the porta-potty truck get unstuck, washing strawberries, making desserts, cutting and prepping the hundreds of flowers that had been brought from Ecuador, initiating and figuring out how to make do when the original plan wouldn't work.  I could keep going.  

The love and service poured out was overwhelming!

 

The beautiful roses from Ecuador deserve their own miracle
story.  I love Our God who cared about the roses!

An outdoor wedding also meant lots of prayers for good weather.  It was  kind of hard not to worry, especially in a place like Missouri where the weather is so unpredictable.  It seemed like everyone was checking the weather forecast on a regular and sometimes daily basis. 

Initial predictions were reassuring, "Little chance of rain."  As the wedding approached however, the chance of rain increased every day.  Danelle and Nate truly would have been happy getting married in the mud and rain, but the rest of us weren't so sure everyone else would enjoy it.   

Even more, I wanted everyone to enjoy Nate's pavilion of lights he had worked so hard to set up for the reception.


Nate gave us a preview of his beautiful pavilion of lights. 
It was magical!

Phil worked like a crazy man, or is it a crazy father, from the moment he arrived two weeks before the wedding until it started.  His greatest concerns were ticks, mosquitos, rain and mud.  He was the wind behind the outdoor details and transformed our country home into what looked like a beautiful estate in the middle of a national forest.  The mulch trail leading behind our house to the ceremony meadow was stunning.  Every day our son Tully worked at his summer job mowing a local cemetery and then came home and mowed on our land until dark. 

But it just seemed there wasn't a good solution for the ground where the ceremony would take place if it rained.  The chairs literally sunk completely into the ground when it was wet, and there was a large puddle in front of the trellis where Danelle and Nate would stand to say their vows.

Friday was beautiful and sunny and perfect for the rehearsal and dinner.  We were hopeful and thankful!

Nate's parents, Todd and Zoe Prevette provided
a beautiful rehearsal dinner at the reception site.

On the day of the wedding I awoke early to the sound of thunder.  And then I heard the rain start.  There was a lot, and it was coming down hard!  Whispering under my breath, “Jesus, have mercy!” I walked into the kitchen to start some coffee.  I could hear Danelle and Chelsea laughing and talking upstairs, with seeming unconcern.  They heard me grinding coffee beans and called me to come upstairs. 

“I am getting married!” exclaimed Danelle.  “You’re getting married!” exclaimed Chelsea and I.  And as the thunder rolled and the rain hit against their window pane, I joined them as they began to sing the Revelation Song they would later sing while descending the hill during the wedding procession. 

Phil, his boys, nephews, cousins and the many family and friends began working outside early that morning to finish many of the outside details.  Phil went to town to buy more mulch.  He was definitely worried about the rain pouring down.  I have no idea how many dump loads and bags of mulch he purchased those two weeks.  This final morning God gave him his answer to the problem he had been worrying over.  Next to a dumpster he spotted carpet thrown out, a lot of carpet.  He was told he could take it for free.  With his cousin Allen, they put all of it into his truck, and with some mulch sprinkled on top, it became the perfect solution for the chairs to keep from sinking into the wet ground.

By mid-morning the rain had stopped.  By noon, the sun began to peek out and dry up the rain.  God had answered our prayers.  A friend later told me that she checked the forecast right as the ceremony began.  It said, “No chance of rain.”

From "Life by Lydia"  -- our amazing friend and wedding photographer

In the end it was a storybook wedding, a tiny glimpse of the heavenly wedding to come

on that glorious someday in that never-ending celebration land.

Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away with me,

for the winter is past; the rain is over and gone...

the time for singing has come.  Song of Songs 2:10-12

Thank You, thank You, Jesus, King of my heart,
King over everything!