Father-of-the-Bride Marries His Little Girl Tonight
Tonight your daddy will perform your wedding vows before a holy God and in the presence of family and friends who adore you and have come to honor you, sweet Blair. It's a day where the mother-of-the-bride reflects back on the goodness of our God in giving you to us. What an honor, what a joy to have been your mom! I'll always be here for you, baby girl! I'm weeping as I write thinking about mistakes I've made as a mom and how I've "missed" all of you at times. Repentant tears. Tears of joy. Thinking back this morning on the day you were born and what indescribable joy it was for me. However, your birth did just about kill me. Had to have a blood transfusion back in the day when blood wasn't being tested for disease. Long recovery for me. But we never recovered from having you. We are so very very grateful to God for your precious life! From childhood, you have embraced your world, your God. You have enjoyed life to the hilt.
When you were about two, you found a clown costume in our hall closet and donned the outfit including the clown hair to greet the next guest who came to our door. And you greeted your world well, always. Your big sister, Brooke, said if she ever wanted to meet anyone, she would just stand right behind you and she could meet the world. You probably know someone in every state of the U.S., seriously. Your school years found you helping your classmates again and again. Your older siblings may have been hard acts to follow---or so they say--- being first and second in their class, but you allowed your beautiful God to carve your nitch. I think your brothers got all the math genes. But God paved a good way for you to attend the University of Oklahoma. You were chosen to be in the President's Leadership Class---only two were selected out-of-state from all their admissions applications. Your hard work in high school paid off for you and you became a Witherspoon Fellow in D.C. right after college. Your college years in political science also opened a door for you in Washington D.C. where you served the people as a Legislative Correspondent for the gentle and kind Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma. Your long stay in Washington D.C. proved to be a very good start to your young adult life trusting a very good God. And the precious friends you have made along your way are here today with us. They have come from Washington D.C., Charlotte, Atlanta, and too many towns up north to list.
Yesterday, I shared with you, Blair, a photo memory book I made for your 2nd birthday . In it were 7 verses that we had worked on memorizing that year. One of them was I Sam 2:9 - God will guard the feet of his faithful ones. Even this morning, God gave me a verse in Psalm 121 for you that He will guard you as you go out this day and leave us. If you turn around when you drive off, you'll see me crying, probably a lot. It will be tears of joy and tears of sadness for me in closing this chapter of our lives. I have so loved being your mommy. I have so loved having my kids at home---I'll trust God with this as I let you go. You'll just never know until you have your own kids. Another verse in that 2nd Birthday Book that I shared with you at your Rehearsal Dinner was Joshua 1:9 - God is with you wherever you go! As you become Mrs. Patrick Walsh this day, know that it is your Beautiful God Who holds your hand & will meet the deepest needs of your heart. You adore Patrick and we love him because you do. He has been so good to you. He is a gentleman in the true sense of the word. We welcome Patrick who works at Louisian Tech in their sports department and the entire Walsh family of Atlanta into our hearts. You're going to live in my home state.
You will always be my girl! I'll close with this thought. One day we'll all lift our glasses to toast the One for Whom we live. But tonight, we lift our glasses to toast you both from Psalm 131. Wait for God. Wait in Hope. We wait with you on a Beautiful God to show up. Hope Now. Hope Always. 
photos sent from my cell phone (will have to find a scanner someday). I'll Love You Forever, Mommy
