{"id":1960,"date":"2026-05-28T23:13:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=1960"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:31:15","slug":"a-wonderfully-strange-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=1960","title":{"rendered":"A WONDERFULLY STRANGE WEDDING"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I didn&#8217;t fall out of my writing habit again&#8230;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I simply took a few days off and worked to live in the moment as much as possible as Melissa, Sarah and I traveled to a wedding in Branson, Missouri for a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This involved an 8-hour drive on Monday, a bit of sightseeing and the wedding on Tuesday, and then another 8-hour drive back on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was an excellent use of time, especially considering that Sarah is heading to Myrtle Beach for the next two months in just a couple of days, so we won&#8217;t be getting to spend time with her this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_1521-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the sightseeing was fun, especially the Butterfly Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_1658-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"2048\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what really stood out was the wedding itself and the reception which followed.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was a bit surreal, because the bride was a daughter of the missionary family living next door to us most of our time in Haiti and several of the guests were Haitians &#8211; my former students.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I wasn&#8217;t prepared for that.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was just so strange to be in this beautiful, glass event facility in the green countryside of Missouri with the &#8220;kids&#8221; from our life 6+ years ago when we lived and worked in the poorest, most chaotic country in this hemisphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And they are all in their twenties and dressed to the nines!<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And they are doing well. Praise God.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_1721-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2364\" height=\"1330\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_1690-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2364\" height=\"1330\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_1708-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2364\" height=\"1330\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Lord works in mysterious ways, for certain!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I didn&#8217;t fall out of my writing habit again&#8230;\u00a0 I simply took a few days off and worked to live in the moment as much as possible as Melissa, Sarah and I traveled to a wedding in Branson, Missouri for a few days. This involved an 8-hour drive on Monday, a bit of sightseeing and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1966,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions\/1966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}