Saying their vows.
Communion.
Mr. and Mrs. Silas Tolan!!!!!! Wow! Yikes! My brother is a married man!
They received an African blessing - it began to rain as they were walking down the aisle as husband and wife at the end of the wedding.
Andy, Christopher and I were all in the wedding - which was an honor to participate it. Christopher actually made it down the entire aisle as the ring bearer. It was priceless - he was walking with his cousin, Sophie, who is 7 and was the flower girl. At first, they held hands as they walked across the lawn. When they reached the point where she was supposed to drop her flowers, she let go of his hand to do so, and kept walking. He took a few steps beside her, then realized she was dropping her flowers. With a VERY concerned look on his face, he stopped and started picking them up. Holding one out toward her, he said "You dropped it. Flowers." She had to turn around and go get him. I don't think he ever quite figured out that dropping the flowers was what she was supposed to do! Pretty funny.
Christopher playing the piano at the reception.
I'll have to post a few family pictures from the wedding when I get them - all of the sisters were in it - which was fun...so we were all dressed up and had a great time together. Megan was also in the wedding - she played base in the band - so she came down early on Tuesday and was here all week. It was such a blessing to have "Auntie Meg" helping so much with Christohper. They had a blast together, including "marching" and "tiptoeing" around our dining room table for over an hour! What a good aunt.
One of my best friends from high school, Tina Okken Smiddy and her husband Nathan drove down to shoot the wedding photos. They stayed with us and it was a lot of fun to have them here and spend a little time Sunday and Monday catching up on life.
Tina playing in the "kitchen" with Christopher.
Dave and Lizbeth also joined us for breakfast Sunday morning - yummy pancakes! Thanks, Drew.
(L to R) Rachel, Megan Didyk, Lizbeth and Dave Whipple, Tina and Nathan Smiddy, Andy and Christopher.
Needless to say, with everyone in from out of town, Kaela had a LOT of visitors this weekend.
Friday morning, Si and Mollie came up to see her before they left for their wedding/honeymoon.
Uncle Silas holds his niece for the first time.
Hand off.
Snuggling with "Aunt" Mollie - one day before she's an official aunt. Yeah!
Auntie Meg gets to hold her niece. It's been so great to be able to take our siblings into the NICU this time around.
SaraBeth holding her niece for the first time.
Anna Leigh held her too - but I didn't have the camera - so picture of her with Kaela coming soon!
Snuggle time with Daddy - another late night visit after the wedding.
Beautiful baby girl, talking with Daddy. (I know - I already put this picture up once - but I love it!)
Great-Aunt Debbie Cain and Grandpa Tolan meet Kaela.
Great-Aunt Debbie Josephs gets to meet her great-niece.
Great-Uncle Dan and fabulously beautiful Great-Aunt Dorcas are introduced to Kaela.
Kaela meeting Dave and Lizbeth.
Kaela meets Ms. Tina. It was really special to be able to share this experience with one of my best friends. We haven't been able to see each other much since high school because of location, so it was a blessing to have her here.
Meeting Mr. Nathan.
Being the professional photographers that they are, Nathan and Tina snapped about 150 pictures in the short time we were visiting Kaela. The next 4 are some of the ones they took.
Holding hands.
Our sweet angel.
Precious girl.
Talking with Mommy.
The afternoon when I took Dave and Lizbeth and Megan in to see Kaela, I had taken the Whipples in first. When I came back out to let Andy and Megan go in, Andy asked me to take her in because he had a terrible headache. So I said: "All right, let's go Megan." Christopher heard me and said "I go. I see Kaea." So I decided to take him in again too. He didn't touch my neck the whole time! Yeah - so he must have felt more comfortable. When Kaela's alarm get going off, he said "Kaea paying music. Ding. Ding. Ding." And he matched the sounds with perfect pitch.
Then, last night, I was staying home to put Christopher to bed. We had just finished eating and Andy said "Kiss Daddy goodnight. I'm going byebye for a little bit." Where Daddy go? asked Christopher. "Daddy's going to see Kaela." I see Kaea. I coming. I coming. So we took him again. He was SO EXCITED! He was yelling SEE BABY KAEA in a very excited voice as we parked and walked in to the hospital. Then he ran to the elevator, and ran down the hall ways - he knew which way to go - telling anyone and everyone he was going to see baby Kaea. We wish we'd had the video!
Christopher visiting with his sister. He talked to her, helped Mommy sing to her, and prayed for her. Very special!
Andy feeding Kaela her bottle.
All three of us ended up visiting Kaela again this evening. Christopher and I weren't there long since I don't want him walking around or touching anything...and he just wants down...but it was still nice. He talked to her again, told her he loved her, and "kissed" her with his forehead on the top of her head. When I told him to say goodnight to her, he said "Bye-bye seet girl." I almost cried - so precious. We can hardly wait to get her home and be a family of 4.
Kaela had lost weight over the past 5 days, but finally gained an ounce tonight - PTL! Her c-diff came back positive =( so we still need two negatives to get her out of isolation. Please pray this will clear up quickly. She's doing well with the bottle...though still needs to work at it...but we don't want this infection to be what's keeping her in the hospital.
Well...that about sums it up for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment