Blending a family isn’t easy. It isn’t very natural either.
When blending a family, a choice has been made to combine two sets of worlds together into one.
Building a strong foundation in the very beginning is key. David and I recognized this early on and made a decision to design our wedding ceremony around blending our new family of 6, not just focusing on the two of us joining in marriage.
Even with me being the daddy’s girl that I am and having my dad be one of David and my biggest fans, I decided that my boys would walk me down the aisle and give me away. Waiting at the altar with David was his son who was his best man and his daughter who was our flower girl.
When our pastor asked the question, “Who gives this women to be married to this man?” My oldest replied, “My brother and I do.” Then he placed my hand in David’s.
My oldest son stood next to his new sister and my youngest son stood next to his new brother. We strategically placed the kids so that it was obvious to them and our guests that there was not his side or her side, all was blended.
David and I not only wrote our own vows to share with each other, but together we wrote vows to our children. We shared in the reading of these vows and took turns making our serious and funny promises to each of them.
“David: We wrote these vows for you as promises of how we intend to lead and raise you in the ways of our Lord.
April: When we made our commitment to be together forever it was with ALL 6 of us in mind, not just David and myself. With lots of prayer and God’s direction we made the decision to become a family of 6; not his kids or my kids anymore, you are OUR kids.
David: With God in the center of our family I promise to raise you boys, with honor and respect for your dad, loving you as my own, in hopes of always making him proud.
April: You two are very blessed to have an amazing mom. I promise to come alongside her and your dad to help them raise you two, also as my own, and with God as our center.
David and April: We promise to love and respect each other as God has designed us to. We pray that our example of marriage and how we treat each other will teach you how to love and respect each other as brothers and sister. We pray this is true not only with each other but with friends, family and anyone that may cross your path.
David: I promise to lead our family with fun and adventure. Camping, fishing, dirt bike riding and sports will always be a part of this family. I promise to have lots of nerf wars, just don’t tell your mom.
April: And I promise to bake lots of brownies. I promise to never stop telling you how much I love you or stop kissing all of your cute faces. Even when you 4 are grown up I’ll continue to embarrass you with my “I love you Mores” and kissy faces. And I promise to always make you clean up your nerf bullets.
David: At times you guys may not understand the way we discipline and parent. But we pray Proverbs 22:6 over you “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.” We pray God will always be the center of and lead your lives. We love you.
David and I went on to take communion and we had the children join us. At this time our pastor’s wife came up and prayed over our family.
We continued the ceremony with sharing our vows with each other and exchanging of the rings, which David’s best man and son was holding for us.
As our wedding ceremony came to an end it was finally official that we were not just husband and wife, but we were now a family.
To us, our wedding ceremony was perfect. We achieved our goal of including our children, which made for such an intimate and special celebration.
