very soon to marry - again

Tomorrow is Abraham's and my church wedding. Finally! As anyone who has ever gotten married in a ceremony probably knows, there are so many nit-picky details that come up as the planning happens. Happily, here in Puebla and among the Dios es Amor church community and among the school folks, there are many people ready and willing to help. Librada washed the church windows and curtains and is getting up super early Sunday morning to finish the mole, Janelle drove out to pick up potted daisies for the table decorations, Manuel and Ruth made the ceremony bulletin, Mike took me to get my dress from the dry cleaners and will take me out to church at 8, Joe set up skype so my oldest sister could see the ceremony although she is in the US, Sarah and her sister did the flower arranging, and many more people helped in many other ways.

Today during the Great Church Clean Up, a lot of people turned up to help. We had our fair share of happenings. As my family and I walked up to the sanctuary, our first sight was the corpse of a dog who'd died during the night. Later, poor Abraham and Kevin (my brother) were the lucky ones to cart the body to the dump in a wheel barrow.

After the huge tarp had been put up outside for shade, a torrential downpour lifted it off its poles and filled the basketball court where the tables for the reception were going to go with 4 or more inches of water. About twelve people, including Abraham and I, spent the next hour sweeping and squeeging the water off the court. In one particularly grand puddle, people used dust pans to scoop water into buckets to carry off the court. I kept thinking, "How many American brides spend time before their wedding sweeping water off the church's basketball court? What memories."

Our wedding rehearsal was over an hour late because of the downpour which flooded roads. Our flower girl never even arrived.

There will be hitches tomorrow, but I already have stored up memories of willing help and lots of moments of laughter. When we return from the honeymoon, we'll have even more stories to tell.