We can finally relax...*ah~* hehe... We're even more certain of our decision to keep the wedding plans firmly to 'church only', now that it's over.
Thank God for the wisdom and courage He has blessed us with for this wedding and our marriage. As Friar Mike said to us when we first told him the reason for the readings we chose for our wedding, "That's very daring of you...very bold. It takes a lot of courage to do so, and I really hope you guys can continue to think this way." We were and still are determined to run our family and our marriage in our own way, with God's Word as the pillar of our home. We've passed our first test, I reckon, during the wedding...
We both have large extended familes, so we decided right from the beginning, not to have lengthy Chinese wedding practices -- which includes an endless line of relatives for tea ceremony. My mom's alright with that, since it would keep things simpler. Andrew's mom on the other hand kept trying in the background -- the same way she makes her 'last minute struggle' for a Chinese wedding dinner.
After several attempts (without success) over the few days before our wedding to get us to make changes to our wedding according to what she wants, she tried to get Andrew to agree when he was nervously waiting for me to march down the aisle. She thought she could get him under that kind of circumstances since it's a 'yes' or 'no' answer. Well, she was certainly surprised, though not pleasantly by his more than one word answer-- "Sit down." :p [Yikes~I'd have been too polite and stressed up to provide the most appropriate answer in that kind of scenario -- that's one good reason I married this man. ;)]
You'd have thought she'd dropped that, but I learnt one lesson on how my darling mom-in-law survived alone in foreign countries all these years --
never say die! :p She tried to use my mom; next my aunt...small, little lady she is, but shrewd and tough huh? Think my mom and aunt were stressed out by their own politeness. Well, that's lesson number two for me -- one of the old curses to be broken from the family -- when one is too polite, one either starts storing up resentment; or loses one's identity sooner or later, becoming no lesser than a hypocrite. Hmm...sound harsh? Yeah, well, raw truth...guess I'll refine that over the years.
Eventually we did have dinner with Andrew's extended families of his five uncles. We insisted that it was a make-up reunion dinner since Andrew's mom hasn't been around for reunion dinner for years (either sulking over one thing or another, or was in Melbourne). We enjoyed the dinner as did everyone else. I'm glad we agreed to the gathering while keeping to our own terms.
Now that I am able to look back, God has shown me yet another miracle through this wedding. When I prayed for peace and directions for our wedding, the wedding in Cana popped into my mind immediately, and my anxiety over money, differences in our churches' expectations, and our families, was immediately lifted. I knew then that I was to leave the wedding plans in God's hands, and focus of the wedding should be entirely on the man I was to marry and God whom we want to be in our marriage. We have been truely blessed by the shower blessings from people whom we love and love us. Thank God for everyone of you. :)
