Toast for Laura and David

It is an honor to speak today.

I have loved Laura since the day she was born. When you have a child, a part of your heart is outside of your body. You feel their excitement, their pain, their joys and sorrows as if they were your own. Today my heart feels joy. Laura is a very caring person. She can be stubborn, and you cannot make her do things. She can change her mind at the last minute. She is slow to ask for help even when she could use it. Sometimes you need to be direct and ask her what she is trying to do. I think that this is a character trait she may have picked up from me or my father.

She is also the most loyal and forgiving and understanding, non-judgmental person you could want for a friend, or family member. She is not a complainer. She does not run others down. If it is gossip you want, call her mother or one of her sisters, but not her. Laura doesn’t pry, and she doesn’t tell.

Laura’s silence about other people’s annoying habits can give you little mysteries to solve.   Laura can express anger and frustration in one context, when it is something else that is bothering her. But if you ask her she will be honest about it, because that is how she is.

Don’t take Laura’s silence as aloofness. Laura can be sensitive. She is also a closet romantic. Take today, 56 year anniversary of my parent’s wedding, 28th anniversary of my brother’s and 22nd birthday of her sister. This is no mistake.

Laura is very easy to get along with. Quiet Laura, voted class clown. She is funny and easy going. Just don’t mess with her stuff.

David, we are very happy to have you join our family. You bring just the right mix of kindness, humor, patience, love of the outdoors, and a healthy appreciation for star wars and other fantasy/sci fi genre films. You and Laura make a good partnership. It is not as important that you have identical interests and habits as it is that you appreciate those things the other has that you don’t, and work together as a team. For example, Beth is an energetic and doting mother, and a great conversationalist, I am not. I’m a nag.

As you go forward remember that if you are always right, or you win every argument, then you are doing it wrong. It is more important to respect each other and compromise. Marriage is not a competition, there is no sibling rivalry, no room for resentment or grudges. Maybe put 1st Corinthians on your wall. We have it up in our bedroom. I read it almost every night while I am waiting for Beth to get done in the bathroom. The longer I am married, the more I see how true it is. Love is Patient, hopes, endures, and all the rest.

Today, with all of us, you have solemnized the greatest gift you could give each other. The public declaration of your love and partnership. In a couple years, may you follow up with a gift to Beth, Lupita, Fernando and I, grandchildren.