My 3 Kids All Married in 1 Year

This is really crazy - all three of my children have plans to marry in 2010! We are so excited. One marriage has occurred and the other two have begun the planning process. What's neat to me is how connected they all are - my kids are not just marrying random people the rest of us don't really know or have some background on. Let's go back and trace through some of the connections.

We moved to Woodbridge, VA in 1994 and began attending Calvary Baptist Church. Amy Williams and her family were attending there at the time so we knew her and her family from then on and they actually stayed in our house one year for about 3 weeks while we were on vacation and they were visiting from Iceland. Amy noticed Richie pretty soon and was frustrated with another boy in fourth grade. Sometime over the years, I remember Richie saying something about Amy being different from the other girls - she wasn't as crazy. They went to a couple of proms and homecomings and one or two dates over the years but Stevie took her to a dance or two as well - seemed she was just a good family friend. I'll throw in here, too, that Sara was at their house some playing with Amy's sister, Beth Ann, and also having a secret crush on Amy's younger brother, Greg - crazy. Off to college they all go. Making friends, joining Cru, always looking for someone who might be their lifelong partner. One weekend we are down for a Tech football game and went for pizza afterwards. A couple of Sara's friends joined us and Terry and I proceeded to "grill" one of the young men because there seemed to be an interest in him by Sara but at one point in the day I look down towards the end of the table where Sara is sitting and I remember thinking to myself, "We may be grilling the wrong guy." There was just something about the way Landon and Sara looked at that moment that made me think there was something there. Turns out I was right. Sara will admit that at that time, she was checking them both out but she would quickly say she made the right choice with Landon. So where do the connections with Landon come in? Well, it turns out that one of the guys that Richie rents a room to, Chad, was in the Cru band with Landon and they had roomed together one year. It was nice to have someone that had roomed with Landon to tell us he was a good guy - kind of eases a mother's mind. Not only that, but Stevie had mentored Landon one semester while Stevie was on staff with Cru so that was an added bonus - my son okayed him. Another side note - Chad is dating Sara's best friend, Renata - Chad was one of Landon's groomsmen and Renata was Sara's maid of honor at their wedding. Okay, so how does Stevie's Becca connect? Well, she lived with us for about a month. She was living with a family in England as a nanny. Our church called the man to be the Worship and Outreach Pastor here. Richie and Amy as part of the Search Committee (they had just been dating about a week or two at this time) were the first people to meet the husband and wife, Tim and Jamie, and Tim loved Richie's enthusiasm and passion and was ready to hook Becca up with him - we had to inform him that Richie was dating Amy but that we had another son, Stevie. Tim was disappointed and didn't really think there could be another one like Richie but he showed Becca a picture of Stevie anyway when he went back to England before the move. Well, Becca wasn't going to have anything to do with a pucca shell wearing Frat boy so that was that. They moved here and they all stayed with us for about a month and during that time they all got to see Stevie for who he is and decided he wasn't so bad after all. Since Becca was living here, she and Stevie would go to all the young adult activities together and they were getting to know each other on a very non-threatening, non-committal level. Stevie finally decided that he was interested in dating her so their relationship began. Sara was home from Tech at various times and got to know Becca as well and they really seemed to connect so Sara asked her to be one of her bridesmaids. So it is just great to see them all as good friends before they are even spouses and brothers and sisters (in-law). What a huge blessing. Our youngest married in January, the middle one marries in, they hope, April and the oldest marries in October. What fun!