When we woke up on the Friday morning of Rose and Temidayo's wedding, Sue and I still didn't know how Temi had resolved his last minute loss of his best man, but we had a few things to do before we found out.  The Rowes, Jona-Lynn's in laws, live in a big, beautiful home in a residential area of Houston. Sue and I had our own bathroom when we stayed over, which was a very good thing, because when I took my shower, I knocked down their shower curtain, and I was nable to get it back up.  After quickly drying off, I texted Sam and Jo about my mishap, and Sam was able to fix it before my faux pas became known.  

Everyone converged back at the same hotel where we spent the previous evening, and Sue reported quickly to Rose's room, where her sisters, aunt, cousin  and first grade teacher were all already about the business of preparing her for the day.  At one point, Jo came downstairs and said, "Mom and Aunt Kim aren't the bossiest people in the room!  You should see Naomi and Lindsey"  This was to be a day of passing the torch to the next generation!

The guys got to hang out in the lobby and drink coffee and run the occaisional errand.  Sam and Mike were really the errand runners, as David and I enjoyed be the old guys who didn't have to do much.  Another torch passed.

At about noon, as I recall, the bride came downstairs all dressed in her white gown.  She looked fabulous.  They had a photographer and videographer meet at the hotel, and it felt like the papparazzi suddenly appeared.  Yet, in all the sudden flurry of activity, I still had a few private moments to cry tears of joy. Then, the bridal party were whisked into a limo, and Sam drove Sue, Tammy and me to the venue for the festivities that were to come. Unfortunately, Sam was given the wrong address, and didn't realize it until the GPS led us to a grocery store instead of a wedding hall.  He made a quick call, got the right address, told everyone we were 30 minutes out, and set out into the Houston traffic again.  While this would put us getting to the site about five minutes after the 4:00 scheduled start time, in the end it turns out that didn't matter.  Something we learned about Nigerian culture (which we had already seen in Uganda years ago) is that times are fluid, and rarely adhered to.  We finally got there at 4:10, and most of the guests hadn't arrived yet.  The 4:00 wedding finally began at about 4:40.  But it was so worth the wait.

While the wedding party came down the center aisle like would be typical, Rose descended from an elegant staircasr on the left side of the seats.  I met her at the bottom of the stairs to walk her down the around the room and down the aisle.  Since I had time alone waiting at the bottom of the stairs, I had a lot of time for memories to flood my mind:

The day a boy at school taught her about baseball at recess, and she came home and asked me to teach her to pitch.

The time in high school when we were crossing the street in our little downtown area in Maine, and she held my hand.  I realized in that moment that this might be the last time we held hands- and I was right.

The silly games we played at night before tucking her in.

Teaching her basketball at a local park.

So many memories and several tears shed.

And the tears continued as I walked her down the aisle.  But they were sweet, joyful tears.  By the time we got to the front, I was a little more composed; greeted Temi with a hug, and hugged my girl and sat.

This part of the service was so sweet.  Their pastor did a nice job of sharing the love of Christ and a Gospel message without compromising the mood of the wedding.