Continued...

As promised, I'm finishing my post now that the laundry is done. We're so lucky to finally have a house with a washer & dryer...but I still hate putting everything away after it's folded.

What I've been meaning to post, as previously mentioned, are the details for our vow renewal & reception next May (and the reasons why we're already married). So...here goes.

The first reason is that we lived together before we were married, and planned to have our wedding in the church I attended while I was growing up. When we met with the pastor to discuss our plans, he told us that in order for us to be married in the church we'd need to first be married either in a civil ceremony or a private ceremony at the church so that we would no longer be living together without being married. He stressed the importance of getting married as soon as possible. Our second reason was that my grandpa was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer this past winter, and wasn't doing well. He'd been in and out of the hospital a few times and we could tell he didn't have much time left with us. I'd always hoped he'd be able to be at my wedding (he'd had heart problems since before I was born), and so we picked a date.

On the morning of June 7th, I'd gotten up early because I was standing up in the wedding of two good friends of mine later that day and I needed to start getting ready. As I was getting ready to get in the shower, the phone rang. It was my grandma, so my mom answered. We knew my grandpa had gone to the hospital the night before, because he was having trouble breathing (his lungs had been filling with fluid for a couple of months). As soon as I saw my grandparents' phone number on the caller ID, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. My fears were confirmed a few seconds later...Grandpa had died shortly after midnight.

As much as I wanted to be with my family, I went ahead and stood up in the wedding. My friend Angie was completely understanding, and I couldn't miss out on her big day! Donny didn't come to the ceremony as originally planned, but I went and picked him up so we could go the the reception together. We stayed until shortly after the grand march & then went to my grandparents' house to see my grandma.

The next few days were pretty rough, but we decided to go ahead with our wedding on the 12th. Grandpa's visitation was on Tuesday and the burial was on Wednesday morning. Thursday night was our wedding, and just our immediate families and the few members of our wedding party who could make it--one of my best friends had her baby just the day before!!

It was one of the longest weeks of my life, and even though Grandpa couldn't physically be there, we all knew he was there with us. Thursday the 12th was also just two days before what would have been my grandparents' 55th wedding anniversary, so that made it special for us, too. Grandpa had definitely given us his blessing, and had even left me a letter telling me so. He wrote that he was happy for us, and that his not being there wouldn't matter...he just wanted me to know he thought it was very important that we be married.

We are now planning a vow renewal ceremony and wedding reception on May 24th of next year, and are very excited to have our extended families and all of our friends celebrate with us. We're planning a casual, fun day at a park near my grandparents' house. We're having a pig roast and are hoping to just have a great, memorable time.