A Sweet Love Story

This whole year we have watched a relationship develop between Byron and Pamela, our former employee.  Being friends with both, it has been fun to watch.  In January, before we knew of this relationship, Marc said, "Byron is coming to see us."  We were both glad.  It only took a day or so to realize Byron didn't come to see us, but Pamela.  Byron has spent a lot more time in Honduras than Murfreesboro this year.  When Byron left in August, if I was a betting person, I would have placed a bet that I would have considered to be a sure thing that he would not stay gone a whole month.  I would have lost.

Upon returning to Honduras in September, Byron immediately asked Pamela to marry him.  And she said yes.  A wedding began being planned.  I got involved in the wedding planning.  The wedding was today. 

There has been a flurry of activities for weeks with all of the Casa kids being in the wedding.  All of the girls had to be measured for dresses.  New white sandals had to be purchased.  Three pair had to be returned.  The boys got new black pants and blue shirts.  Then the dresses had to be tried on and two had to be altered.  But this week everything kicked into high gear, with my house becoming wedding central.  A beautiful four layer cake was made (not by me).  Mints were made.  Bows. Bride's bouquet.  On and on.  It was fun.  And exhausting.

The kids were so excited.  Yesterday, when I returned from the market, Reina had a nail file and was working on everyone's nails.  There were dozens of bottles of fingernail polish on the table.  And it was silent in the house as there was some serious work being done on finger nails and toe nails.

Kathy, whose day off is Friday, came yesterday afternoon to use the straightener on some of the girls' hair.  This morning we had devo at 6:00 instead of 7:00.  Everyone jumped out of bed.  They were chatty during devo and did not want to settle down for breakfast.  After breakfast and chores, we were very busy in spite of the fact that shirts and pants had been ironed, shoes had been polished, hair straightened. 

All the boys got dressed except for Josue.  He had to wait until right before we left.  Hair was gelled.  Ties tied.  They were one handsome group of guys.

In the meantime, Nicole was busy with the girls.  She put on a little makeup.  Helped get the pretty new white headbands in hair. 

The girls were not allowed to change into their dresses until a few minutes before leaving.

My employees brought their finest clothes with them and everyone changed and we were finally out the door at 9:20 about 15 minutes behind my original goal.

Have you ever seen a wedding with 26 children in it?  I had visions of it being a nightmare.  It was very sweet and endearing.

Byron and Pamela were very insistent that the wedding start on time because they had to catch a plane to Roatan.  Rarely does anything start on time in Honduras.  This wedding was delayed because the musicians did not show up on time.  The reason they did not show up on time was as they were on their way, the cello was stolen from the the cello player.  Who would steal a cello and why?  Only in Honduras.  He did not come, but the other three musicians did.

Our kids were singing a song.  But they also had other special parts in the wedding.

There were five flower girls

Sisi carried the Bible

Marc was given the special honor of walking Pamela up the aisle

and then of performing the ceremony, too.

Byron and Pamela are a beautiful couple.  It was a beautiful wedding. 

In the U.S., we are used to having buffet line at the reception.  Buffet is not something with which most Hondurans are familiar.  Trust me, it was a feeding frenzy.  And when it was over, I was not sure what had happened.  There was not one morsel of food left.  Not one plate, or cup or any punch.  The wedding cake was inhaled.  When the cake was gone, they began scraping the cake plates.  And one or two might have even licked the cake plate clean.  There are no pictures or words to describe it.

Here's wishing Byron and Pamela a beautiful life.

Terri