earth angel

We arrived home (yay!!!) on Friday afternoon, and Sunday morning one of our dearest friends in our city was getting married.  Not only were we going TO the wedding, but Emma was going to be IN the wedding.  No, not as a flower-girl in a typical American wedding.  She was going to be an angel - complete with wings - walking down the aisle carrying a candle. 

Emma actually has been excited about her wedding duties for several weeks.  I've been surprised at how well she mentally prepared herself for it.  For example, one evening a few weeks ago, josh asked her if she still wanted to be an angel in the wedding.  Here was the summary of her reply:

"Yeah, I still do.  Sometimes when I lay in bed, I think about being the angel.  I know that people will want to take my picture, but I can be friendly and do it.  I will be brave and do a good job."  

Wow. I was impressed with her thoughtfulness about it.  

Well, anyway, I was excited to get some wear out of the cute Gymboree christmas dresses I bought for them in the states last fall, and emma was excited about the wings.  Everyone was happy.  

The day before, we straightened Emma's hair (those pesky flyaways plague emma in a big way!) and laid out all her and mantha's clothes for the next day.  When morning came, everyone ate quickly and jumped into their dresses and red tights and we headed to the restaurant.  (Most weddings, even ones for believers, are done at restaurants.)

Here's Emma and Samantha before everything started:

Then she got her wings and flowery halo:
Getting instructions and practice from daddy while mantha watches on:
Emma had to wait a while for other things to happen during the ceremony before her turn.  She and samantha were happy to sit with our friend and eat all the snacks laid out on the table.  It helped that she and her husband cracked nuts and sunflower seeds non-stop for them.  I couldn't even tell you half of what they ate that day, because they just kept eating...
Finally, it was emma's turn:
Just look at my girl performing under pressure!  All those cameras!  All those people!  You go, girl!!
The mothers of the bride and groom used Emma's candle to light their own candles, which in turn lit some other candle...
After the ceremony, we were ushered into the "honored guests" room to eat lunch, while the other 200 guests stayed downstairs in the main dining hall.  I'd never been to the "honored guests" room at a local wedding - but it's the way to go!  Usually at weddings there's a lot of smoking (free cigs, courtesy of the bridal party), lots of drunk people (hey, open bar - what do you expect?) and more attention to my kids than I'd like.  But in the room today, there were just a few people (whom we already knew and really liked) and it was very quiet and conducive to good conversation.  It was nice to be an honored guest!

One of the ladies in there felt particularly drawn to hold abby almost the entire meal. In fact, except for the brief time I fed her, she did  hold her the entire time!  But I was very ok with that - I ate and talked and briefly forgot I had an infant!
And here's the first family portrait with all five of us together. No, we weren't in a ship.  That's just the classy decorations in the restaurant...  =)
Surprisingly, that was only our 3rd wedding in this country, but it was certainly the most enjoyable.  We love this sister and her new husband and were so honored to be a part of their special day!