down the aisle

Big deal for my middle boy.... he was ring bearer in a wedding yesterday.

It was a fairly last minute request (by American standards of time at least) and my biggest hesitation in saying yes was clothing.... where to find a little suit on short notice.  A friend saved the day with a loaner and John Paul was simply dashing!

He was so very excited.  We talked ring bearer for two weeks!  I thought he was a little young - the couple originally asked Isaac (no budging from my oldest boy, he was 110% uninterested in the whole shindig) so we proposed John Paul as a possibility.

And he did SOOOOOO well at the start.  Pleased that the big moment was finally here.   (I was corralling Luke and taking pics from one of the back rows, Matt was the "launcher" sending him on his big walk.)

He was so engaged with me, and when he turned to look down the aisle

he quit!  Turned right back around and said he didn't want to go.  I whispered in his ear that he could have all the mints in my backpack if he walked the aisle.  No dice.  So I gathered him up in my arms and we watched the bride process in :)  It was almost-four-year-old ring bearer perfection.

Safe in my arms he said "It's too many people" and "maybe next year when I'm bigger".

This little man amazes me.  Yesterday was one of those days when I just could hardly believe he was mine.  I'm devastated for his birth mom.  She said no to so very much blessing.  The gift of him has not been seamless perfection, but I'm terrifically blessed to call him son.

We partied away the evening, and the kids even did a little line dancing.  Luke was on the brink of implosion (no nap plus a diet of mostly candy and sprite will do that to a toddler!) but thankfully he held it together and we got everyone in bed - with memories of a dashing ring bearer brother and a few line dancing moves too!