With Hearts Overflowing

We joyfully participated in our daughter's wedding this past weekend. It was, all of it was a joy. We gave our daughter and youngest child in confidence to a young man we adore, welcoming Ben into our family with open arms.

The weekend featured reunions with many dear friends. It was also the first time in a long time my parents and my three siblings were (with most of Kaycie's cousins in tow) in the same place at the same time. We had so much fun. The wedding went off without a hitch, save the couple that got hitched, of course. (Any hitches to be had I learned of only afterward. Nothing burned up. No one lost their salvation. No animals were injured in the filming of this epic.)

But no one told me how hard it would be for me to keep my own emotions in check. My friend Russ had told me, "Giving your daughter away is a big deal." He was and is so right. There were four times when I had to try hard, really hard to keep from sobbing and making a mess of things.

When I was invited into the bridal dressing room to place the garter above Kaycie's left knee I walked in and Kaycie said, "Daddy, don't look at me." She teared up. I tried not to, and spent most of the episode looking up at the ceiling. This was the hardest. When I saw a photo someone took of that very moment a couple of days later I had a serious, overdue cry. Tears of joy tears.

I thought the walk with Kaycie down the aisle toward her husband-in-waiting would be hard. We decided to laugh instead. We showed up smiling. That walk, as it is for any bride's father will be a lifelong memory.

The third event, the one I perhaps "dreaded" the most was the daddy-daughter dance. Don't know why I was so worked up over this, but I was. But as it turned out Kaycie stepped on my toes enough times during that dance that we laughed and talked and held each other close, and it was great. But seeing Ben's mom and dad dance, and then Ben and his sister join them, and then seeing Kaycie join them all was a show-stopper. I openly wept. So did everyone else. A magical moment.

The fourth and final challenge was the father's toast. Nick the Best Man and Haley the Maid of Honor had just completed back to back serious tear-jerker toasts. I was up next, and before I could get a word out Kaycie looked at me and said, "Daddy, please be funny." I parked what I had planned to say to the newlyweds and instead went into some ridiculous commentary about how troll dolls taped to bicycle handlebars somehow related to grandchildren. (Okay, it was the first thing that came into my head, so I went with it.) Not sure if what I had to say was the least bit inspirational, but Kaycie laughed, so it was a win.

Deb and I returned to our Alaska home exhausted, emotionally spent, with hearts overflowing. And I'm glad God gives me tears of joy, and the freedom to let them flow. It's one way we can all emulate our heavenly Father.