It takes a village...to throw a wedding!

Nathan and I had a very special date recently where we able to take a moment to breath and decompress over the weeks leading up to our date! We had had Christmas Break and then I went to the States with Laney and Berdie for 10 days to meet my niece and to see my cousin get married. Then the day after I got home we decided to throw a wedding in under 2 weeks, soccer season started 2 days later and then we turned around the next week and had another community gathering and cookout at our place and finally a moment!

One thing we talked about on our date was my nervousness about having 4 girls and the financial burden that can mean and I am sure would be regardless of our life status! Nathan was so sweet as we prayed and dreamed together and he reminded me in his words, "Clare, I don't know what you are panicking about, you just threw a dream wedding for under $1000 in our own backyard. What makes you think we can't do that again?"

He was totally right and for the moment that put end to it and left me resting and remembering how good the Lord was to us in planning this wedding for Jessica and Epson. I wanted to share some pictures from the night!

So this was our community wedding:

Student's family donated the money for the fabric of the dress and the seamstress made it is 4 days for $40! Another coworker gave the Guayabera shirt to Epson, it is the traditional dress shirt in Panama!

   All the kids waiting for their special role in the wedding activities! 

Later, after they had all had too many smores we set up a movie on the lawn!

  Jessica and her best girls having a roommate moment laugh! A dear friend made her jewelry, a student's mom did Jess' nails, the salon did her hair for free and another student's mom did her make-up! 

 All the kids waving their ribbons yelling and skipping, "The bride is coming! The bride is coming!" Then they all sat around the back of the tent and played in the rocks! 

 The beautiful bride! We forgot to give her the bouquet of flowers! Check out the lights! Our small group came the night before and helped us hang all the lights! They were awesome (the lights and our small group!)

 Jess is the K5 teacher and we had all her students draw a picture and write what marriage means and that was a part of the table decorations. Almost each kid wrote and drew, "Marriage is kissing!"

 Talented friend Vivian played for the ceremony!!

 Thankfully we have a professional chef around here as a dear friend, Cresta! She made her first wedding cake and made an awesome cupcake presentation....and half were gluten free! 

 Our Neighbors let us borrow their iron tent (which the wind blew over the day before and bent in half in several spots...leaving the tent in a heap and me not far behind!) It turned out beautifully! 

Our dear friends and neighbors the Almacks were amazing getting 650 ready! 

 The wedding planning girls! Plus Cheryl our cheerleader!

 Getting ready to send them off! We had almost 150 people come! 

 Sparkler send off! Thankfully found a "chinito" store that sold sparklers, thought we were going to have to sing a send off! 

 And the couple is off to the Honeymoon suite at the Hotel Rui....a day of the wedding gift from another family! 

A few more things of how it came together. 

-We had the whole building painted in 10 days LONG OVERDUE paint job! 

-The 1st grade class helped donate the drinks for the punch.

-K5 helped with donations for a smore bar. 

-CCA Staff provided and prepped all the AMAZING DINNER food! Catering and beyond quality! 

-CCA Family who owns a restaurant donated all the kids food, mini cheeseburgers, pizza, fried chicken and mini cake bites! ]

-One CCA family donated the photographer and another guy did the video! 

-All the amazing people who kept our kids while we did this and helped us set up the day of! 

-The CCA upperclassmen were amazing at serving the food and getting the trash!

-Let me not forget my amazing husband who hung pictures, fixed drywall, hung lights, filled tiki torches, and spent 2 weeks helping me prep and 1 week helping me get back to life! He is a remarkable man! If you don't have a mate and you are reading this.....choose wisely and make sure they are supportive in what you love to do...in my case have people over...LOTS OF PEOPLE! 

There is more who helped, but you get the idea! IT WAS TRULY REMARKABLE to see the body of Christ come together. Pastor Steve, who married them said he had never seen such an amazing wedding and pulled off in 2 weeks!

Such fun! Love our community here and love our community back home in the US that sustains us so we can serve in this capacity! We have seen so much generousity poured out on our behalf and for the love of our Crossroad's community!

Miss Williams' Wedding!

So here is the story!

Ro's kindergarten teacher left in the middle of the year and they hired a girl right out of school in the middle of the year. As a parent I was freaking out. New teacher in a new country with ESL kids mixed with native English speakers....she might be ruined forever (Ro, not the teacher....but maybe her too!) I didn't do so great in K5 probably because I was the oldest and mom was dealing with having a new baby, a handicapped one, and Sam on the way. Not to mention we were living in a rental house because Mom and Dad were in a wee bit of a debt redoing a house....which was also a mistake we would make! So me learning my vowels was not the top priority....which I have forgiven them for...and grateful it has made me more aware of my kiddos learning patterns. As to what I have done with that awareness is yet to be analyzed, thankfully. So to get back on point, I was nervous about a new teacher!

We were the first to greet her to Panama after she was dropped off. She moved to the upstairs apartment in 650.

Man oh Man I could not have asked for a sweeter teacher! Since she was living above us she was keenly aware of all that was going on in Ro's little life. New twin sisters in tight quarters, packing up our house temporarily, moving out....Miss Williams filled in when I could not. Ro fell into her arms crying on more than one occasion because she just knew when to love on her and scoop her up and speak truth and love into her life. I am eternally grateful.

This year Essie has her as a teacher!

Not long after arriving Jessica aka Miss Williams, was pursued by the man who is a part of the Crossroads Maintenance Crew. They are truly remarkable men. Epson in particular has learned  and speaks English proficiently since we arrived and moved his way up to Head of the Crew. He is in school at night and has joined the church and serving there as well.

He asked Jessica to marry him last fall (raining season here.) The wedding was planned for late May but then as we all know...you just want to be married!

So when everyone came back from Christmas Break we heard they were going to just push up the date and have a civil court date and be married and forgo a wedding and a reception especially due to all the expenses.

Here is where we come in! Her 2 best buddies came to me and asked if we could pull a wedding off in 13 days. I am always up for a challenge! So here we are 4 days out! 9 days ago seems like a long time ago but we are almost ready!

My list is long! But it is getting checked off!!!
I will post some pictures tomorrow of all the "Work" going into the wedding! We are planning for 150!
We have "wedding work" and "make sure the house is ready work!"

We have had plumbers, electricians, painters, gardeners! You name it and they are aworking!!! But I have to admit I love a good party!!!

Wedding Week!

Here are some pictures of a community wedding in the making!
What you can't see though is that all the flowers are being donated! Someone paid for the brides dress! A friend is making all the cupcakes and another friend all the cookies! The CCA staff is doing all the food!.....I am so blown away with the love and faithfulness of this community!!!

Junk for Sale

The other night we started back for the semester the men's group on Tuesday nights. We are continuing studying "Authentic Manhood" with part 2 of the 33 series. It has been great discussing and challenging other on the challenges and our call. I feel it has gotten a lot of the guys on a similar page of thinking and hopefully keeping each other accountable. This week, one of the points that jumped out to me, was that often when we meet together as Christians were are trading information not connecting. Sometimes I feel that we want to share more about are intellect and knowledge of the Bible rather than testifying to what God is doing or has done. The battle seems to continue to not put up appearances that we have it all together. We discussed how we really have the same "junk" and we struggle with it by ourselves instead of calling in God to heal us and want to praise Him for the changes made. I love getting to preach to myself! Please pray that as the group continues to grow with people form all sorts of backgrounds that it will grow more intimate. Pray that I can be transparent in my junk and be able to testify of His Work to these men, my students, and my own kids.

Just Us For Christmas!

Newletters were mailed and once again we said "CHECK OUT OUR BLOG!" Which sadly is lacking in updates!

There really is too much to update one we are so FULL of life, laughter, love, chaos, parenting...etc! 

We spent Christmas Day just the 7 of us. We did not see one single other person. We loved staying in our pjs all day long and it was such a gift! Especially since we live in an apartment where you can hear every last of the footsteps of those living above us...but they were enjoying Christmas out of Panama so we just pretended we were in a single dwelling. 

On the way to church, Christmas Eve, we were all red and green. The house was ready for dinner with some of our best friends the Cottons and Almacks and their kids. I commented to Nathan, "Well, we are all healthy this Christmas!" (In comparison to last Christmas were we spent a few hours in the ER with high fevers.)  He kinda smirked! I knew I shouldn't have said it! 

After all our friends had left and children were nested in bed Santa's elves came out. (Sidenote, Santa comes to our house. We don't build it up, but such fun to participate in their imaginations and bring to life a little bit of fantasy!) We had fun de-packaging everything and wrapping all the presents from grandparents, aunts and uncle galore and at 1:45 with got the call...from the top bunk....(we were still awake)....

"Mooooommmeeee??" It was Daddy who rushed in to find an explosion of vomit. I am not sure how this child had managed to cover itself, the top bunk and bottom bunk and all the pillows on the floor. I just recovered from all the quilt, mattress pad and pillow washing, 8 days later!

The older 3 were relocated to the playroom and the second call came at about 4 and then again at 5. But this was from a different child and this one managed to contain her contamination! 

"Momooommeee and Daaaaaaadeee" were the first awake so we decided to get the party started...the one where we wake the kids up and torture them for about 45 mins before we get to "go see if Santa came!" We needed a cup of coffee before we could hold up the camera!

Then began a fun day full of smiles and joy! I wish everyday was Christmas!...But then there is the days after where you realize your children are spoiled rotten and all junk food turns to vomit or diarrhea! Just speaking the truth! 

Many people, including me, would say, "I love being with my little family!" But the reality is, THERE ARE SEVEN OF US! 

Side Story to my sidenote: As we sat in the Christmas Eve Service Nathan and I had the older 3 between us and our arms reached around them so we could still touch and I was overwhelmed thinking about all the Christmases to come with our kiddos! They were all clean and beautiful and happy. It was a memory snapshot! (Then Essie looked at me, the missionary mom, and asked, "Mom, is Santa real?" Don't judge, "Yes." As I look over at her Daddy singing Christmas songs in Spanish. He is as real as the come!

Here are a few snap shots amongst the chaos!!! 

Emmylou Holcomb!

Emmylou we waited for you!

We were sitting in some basement restaurant in Boston or somewhere in the Northeast, it runs together because my dad couldn’t just visit Boston, we had to take a tour of Maryland, NY and Maine in a one week trip...so as to where we actually were I don’t remember…but the conversation, I remember that.

We had lost a family member. It wasn’t a grandmother or an uncle. It was our brother, my parents’ son. It was like loosing an extremity. We were one moving body. Jay was severely handicapped and while his inabilities kept us limping sometimes, he still played a role in the movement of the whole body. So at 14 he met the maker of his crippled body and it became new. But the 5 of us, me, Drew, Sam and Mom and Dad we were left amputated.

It was over a year when we took this trip and we were still adjusting to our “new body.” We fit in one sudan, no conversion van needed. So weird.

It was in this basement restaurant where we all divulged how we were feeling and what it was like existing with an amputated limb.  My dad listened, rolling his tongue in his lower cheek, pursing his lips and looking off to the side to keep from crying. I am sure he missed Jay more than he ever articulated and he did articulate it but it was his words that readjusted our hope in regards to the healing process and how we would be able to walk again.

He said, barring something tragic, we (the 5 remaining Hamp Holcombs) are only going to grow. Yes we lost Jay, but the three of us, me, Drew and Sam, are hopefully going to get married and hopefully continue to multiply. So we dreamt of filling that void or growing back the lost limb with more of us!

So I did my part. I married the man that was more than my dreams. We have had our 5 munchkins. I grew more than legs and arms…. We, (the Richardson 7) are a whole new body apart from the Hamp Holcombs yet very much attached.

My brother Sam is still on the hunt for his prey to grow with…I will add that he has set his target and I pray it is the bull’s eye, but the trigger is not yet pulled and no one is pressuring him (not even his sister…but I do like her a lot!!!!)

My brother Drew went way over his aim with his wife. I couldn’t love her more. She is everything I love about my mom (which I find comic A LOT) but she is very much her own woman and I love how Drew and Ellie respond to one another and became their own body too.

This whole epic is set in motion because of one new little growth. Emmylou Holcomb joined us this week. We grew this week, Drew and Ellie, her parents added a limb and the rest of us got grew too!

I wasn’t there to snuggle her warm skin or smell her freshness from heaven we she joined us. I was far away in another country dealing with the joys of mothering her cousins. But it is her birth that reminds me of Jay and how even in his death he left a legacy. Emmylou will know her Uncle Jay in story and in pictures.

There are still whispers both soft and loud of Jay’s presence in each of our 5 lives and while his death was crippling, it is with each new birth that we heal that we grow that we change. Our bodies have and are multiplying. Chapters are being added, the book was not yet finished.

The gold conversion van the Holcomb 6 used to travel in and most certainly the sedan when we mutated to 5 is too small now. Praise the Lord from growth and rebirth.

Welcome to a family with lots of LOVE to share Emmylou Holcomb. We dreamed of you for a long time, even 14 years ago I was anticipating your birth and your imprint on my life and the lives of those I share a body with. We need you, you help our bodies to move.

I already can’t imagine life without her and I have yet to feast my physical love on her. Skype is just not going to cut it and neither is waiting until June.