Marry and Bury

Libin Abraham recently got ordained at Sugarcreek Baptist Church.  At a wedding over the weekend, he made the comment that now he’s official to marry and bury people (conduct weddings and funerals).

This past weekend was bitter sweet.  Bitter because my Appachan (Grandfather) passed away, sweet because it was actually a pretty fun weekend (which included a wedding).

Lets start with the bitter.  Appachan was 93 years.  We have a family orphanage in India led by one of my uncles and Appachan lived there.  They took amazing care of him and loved him like their own.  You couldn’t ask for anything better.  The funeral was in India on Sunday night (Monday morning there).  My Dad has 10 siblings and all but 2 of them made the trip.  I was able to watch the live feed of the funeral via the web.  At any age, funerals are never a fun thing, but being that Appachan was able to live such a long life, it’s easier to celebrate his life, rather than focus on the loss.  It was nice to see all of my Dad’s siblings together.  Sheena and I were planning to make the trip to India at the beginning of 2014 so that Appachan can see/meet Layla, but I guess our timing was off.  He was my last surviving grandparent and will be greatly missed.  

Now lets move on to something a little sweeter.. Like a wedding.  Bryan and Mabel got hitched over the weekend.  The wedding and reception were both great!

I don’t want to glaze over the ceremony part of things, but lets be honest… the reception is what it’s all about!  The Sugarland Marriott has seen its share of grand receptions, but this was amazing.  Decor, food and the guests in attendance, it was a great time!  Felt like a reunion of sorts.  We were able to see a few faces that we haven’t seen in some time (and some faces we are blessed to see all the time!)

Lisa coined the hashtag #brybel for twitter, so we had some fun with that as well!  Things ended pretty late for us, but Layla was a trooper.  She stayed awake for a majority of it all, but closer to the end of the night it was clear that if we stayed any longer, she wouldn’t be so kind to us.

Sunday morning, MJ Oommen spoke at church with a very relevant message.  It’s great to see young people so passionate about Christ!  Very refreshing and eye opening for me.  After church, Sheena had a work thing to attend so Layla and I joined her.  It was a Summer Kickoff hosted by Houston’s First Baptist, Sienna Campus.They know how to host a Summer Kickoff!  Burgers, hot dogs  crawfish, bounce houses, slides, video games, petting zoo, mini train, pony rides… it’s was awesome!

Layla was fixated on the slide, so Sheena and I obliged but got burnt out quickly.  Luckily Benson and Marsha joined us and she was happy that Nicky was there to play with.

Layla’s a gangsta, so she decided to get herself a tattoo.

Pink butterflies are the most hardcore thing they had, so she went with that.

Layla and Nicky both got pony rides too!  I didn’t get pics of Layla, but here’s Nicky!

Some other random highlights of the weekend… we visited Sheena at work

and I finally hung the swing that Earl and Asha gave Layla for her 1st Birthday.