Thursday, 5 July 2012

My First Born is Married!

"He's not mine any more."

My first born son, Fili, married this past weekend.  The ceremony was lovely, and he  married a very lovely young lady, Bre.  I couldn't be more pleased for them or more proud of him.  But, during the entire ceremony, his little face was flashing before me.  Below are the pictures I couldn't get out of my head.  As you can see, they're all as babies.  Where has the time gone?

This is him at 6 months.  He wasn't growing any teeth, so I put him in an outfit with teeth.  We were visiting my family in Germany at this time.  His Dad was in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm.

 

This is his first birthday.  We were at his Great Aunt's house in Albuquerque, NM. 

 In the following pictures, he's three years old.  We're still living in Albuquerque.

 


I didn't cry at the ceremony, but it hit me a few days later.  He's not "mine" any more.  It feels pretty heart-breaking and final, even though I have passed him on to a beautiful young lady who loves him very much.

I think there should be a special ceremony for moms and sons.  You know, one where I would graciously hand him over to his new bride.  The mother should be able to give away the son during the ceremony just as the father gives away the bride.  It feels that symbolic to me.  (In my case, I'd be holding on to his feet while his bride is trying to walk away with him!  Poor Bre -- I hope she has a lot of patience.)   I look at other mother / son relationships  and they just do not look very good.  I don't want that to happen to Fili and me.

Flash forward to the wedding day!  

My two youngest, Jolie & Sam, on each side of my nephew, Ryan.  Ryan took all of these pictures for us, by the way.

Here's a picture of the beautiful church.


This is my daughter, Jolie, who thought this day was all about her.  (I didn't have the heart to tell her it was really all about ME.)  Needless to say, I have already started saving for her wedding!


Finally, the lovely bride and groom, Bre and Fili.


Again, the bride, groom, my husband (Dan), and me.  What you can't see is that I have a death grip on the back of Fili's jacket with my right hand (just kidding!)


Our "new" family with our beautiful new family member, Bre! 


The wedding day was just beautiful.  We all had a wonderful time, and I can't imagine it could have turned out any better.  We have known Bre for five years.  She is fun, funny, smart, kind, pretty, thoughtful, helpful, competitive, which she willingly admits ;-), hard working, can laugh at herself, and best of all, loves coffee as much as I do!  Oh, and she loves Fili very much and makes him happy -- what else matters?  I know how lucky we are that our son found and married Bre.  I wish them both all the best that life has to offer and this is my promise to them: I will not meddle (I hope!)  Lucky for them, I'm still busy with two more kids. . .

I finished this blog and realized I didn't talk about my son.  As you can see, he's still three years old in my mind!  But somewhere along the way, when I wasn't looking, he became an amazing young man.  I couldn't be more proud of him and I tell him that all the time.  I won't even get started . . . . .