Long Pants and Newfound Love

On Friday we had one of our first really cold days, so I had to pull out the cool weather clothes. Hoping to reuse much of last year's wardrobe, I was surprised to find that Ella apparently grew a couple inches this summer! All her pants are too short. We turned this discovery into a family field trip to the outlet mall. Taking advantage of some generous gift cards from Delia's birth and some excellent sales, we picked out a bunch of cute new winter outfits for our growing girl. It was fun to have Dave and Ella both giving input, providing her with some styles different than what I would have just picked. Note to family buying Christmas gifts: Ella is a size 24 months in pants, but NEEDS the adjustable waist, since our Skinny Minnie is probably only a size 12 months around the hips.

(Here Ella happily models one of her new outfits while swinging-- overalls from Baby Gap)

Then last night we got to witness a very special wedding-- the remarriage of a widow and widower from our church, one of them being an immigrant from the Netherlands. Two smile-triggering, tingle-giving moments came when we saw the wife-to-be-again being "given away" by her 6 adult sons. They escorted her down the aisle then thundered, "WE do!" in response to the "Who gives this woman to this man?" question. At the reception all who spoke Dutch were invited to the stage to sing a supposedly familiar song in the "mother tongue." We laughed to see almost half the guests present march up there! Then we sat smiling in oblivion as we listened in the audience to "Daar Bij Die Molen." Church weddings are always great because we know everyone there and have such a nice time enjoying fellowship with friends, but this one was especially neat because it celebrated heritage and God's great providence.