Wedding Guilt and a Quaker Church

Today is two weeks to my wedding. Weddings always come with guilt I think... even if you elope. We tried to elope, but that would have been so full of guilt, we couldn't even entertain the thought. We would have taken a few people with us even. And now we're having a wedding that seems huge to me--a hundred people! ...but there are so many people that I haven't invited. That makes me feel guilt.

Happily, I found a church today where I feel at home. That is so nice, and so good for my guilt. My sweetie left to go hunting for ten days early this morning, and I was watching his boy while my mom watched my girl, and so me and his boy, Bailey, who is nine, went to this new church where I've been going for pre-marital counseling. I'd been there for church twice before, but I didn't really get to know anyone or speak to any people before. Today Bailey and I spoke to many people, and it felt natural and easy. Having a kid with you helps a lot if you want to try to get to know people. Kids are so much easier for strangers to talk to, I think. They sang a song about peace, and the woman who does our counseling was the speaker--she talked about John the Baptist a little, and then the congregants kind of took the sermon and made it deeper and richer with their contributions--a Quaker thing. Quakers get to chime in on sermons, after a brief period of quiet. They were very insightful people. I've considered myself Quaker for a while now, but never had found a church that felt like home. So today was a very good day.

Yesterday was a good day too. It was my bridal shower day. The first gift I opened was beautiful--it was a bird feeder gazebo made by Amishfolk. So fitting for my new country life. And since we're talking about Amish and Quakerfolk, I should say that my cashier at the Grocery Outlet today had a scarf over her head that made her look Mennonite. She wasn't. She was a Messianic Jew--my other favorite denomination. We were still talking when she was done ringing the next guy. Only in the country does THAT happen.

Finally, a good thing to note about today is that I am in my future husband's bed and about to go to sleep here now all by myself. Feels weird, but since I gave my own bed to Catholic Charities over a week ago, it is nice to belong in a bed again.