** Update: The wedding was beautiful. As to be expected. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the festivities. 
Look at that beautiful smile! So glad to finally, officially, have Shalisha as a Kendalling-in-Law!
My brother Dwight and sister-in-law Shalisha at their wedding, with our parents and grandparents.
6 of the 7 Kendallings – just missing myself (who was on a bus somewhere in the mountains of Laos around the time this picture was taken). L-R Karl, Jonathan, Dwight, Shalisha, Krislena, and Christopher.
*Sappy Alert* If you are the sappy type like me.. grab the tissues before reading this.
12/27/14
To my brother, on your Wedding Day,
You entered my life when I was the ripe young age of 3 years old. I wish I could tell you some sweet story about how I was so excited to have you as a little brother.. but actually I just don’t remember it at all.
For 17 long years we drifted between tolerating each other and hating each others’ guts. I wish I knew then what I knew now.. how much of a treasure I had in that pip squeak little brother of mine. I wish I knew that we were stronger together than apart. I wish I knew that walking through the crazy ups and downs of life as an MK in the Kendall family would have been easier with an ally instead of an enemy. I’m sad to say that I didn’t know these things then.
But thankfully we both got older, and we learned a few things. After 18 years of being less than friends, we saw the error in our ways and made a change for the better. You ended up going to my school, and we found out how alike we really were. You learned things from me, and I learned even more from you. And we became the best friends we should have been all along.
And here we are… a few years later.. and I feel like my time is up. I know of course it is not, but you have a much closer best friend. You have found the woman whom your soul loves, and today you will pledge to love her till death do you part. I remember clearly, as if it was yesterday, the days before your love blossomed. When you were just two clueless college kids who hung out all the time. I remember sitting you down and giving you “the talk”. I threatened you about the dangers of playing with girl’s hearts and the fine line of “just friends”. I challenged you to decide whether to remain friends and spend maybe a little less time together, or to take ownership of your relationship and ask her to be your girlfriend. You chose the later of course, and haven’t looked back since.
I remember you coming up to me with the big news at the homecoming fair, that you had asked her mom’s permission and she was officially your girlfriend. From there you two have been inseparable. Through the craziness of everything that the world and William Carey could throw at you, you have stuck by her side. And knowing you, you will stick by her side for years and years to come.. in good times and bad, in wealth and poverty, in sickness and health.. till you breathe your last breath.
And since I can’t be there in person today (and will be sitting on a bus somewhere in the jungle mountains of Laos), I want to give you the greatest gift I can give from afar. My thanks.
Thank You for taking your role as oldest brother so seriously. Thank you for taking far better care of our littles than I ever thought to while I was home.
Thank You for your wisdom, which far surpasses that of most men your age.
Thank You for your forgiveness of all the years I treated you with a heart that was less than kind.
Thank You for letting me cry on your shoulder at any time of day or night when I felt like my life was falling apart.
Thank You for letting me rant over whatever was on my mind, things small and large, and then taking me to go buy chocolate when I was done.
Thank You for giving the Kendall name a solid reputation every where you go, through your dedication, hard work, and loyalty.
Thank You for being one of my biggest cheerleaders as I have made decisions that were less than easy.
Thank You for threatening to have me kicked out of the chapel if I chose to walk away from the Race and what Papa had called me to, just to attend your wedding (still a little bitter, but I love you for it all the same!).
Thank You for showing me that Godly Gentlemen DO actually exist in the world, and that chivalry is alive.
Thank You for staying up till 2am on New Years Eve, just to call me and wish me a Happy New Years when I was all alone in California.
Thank You for waking up an hour later and staying on the phone with me for an hour as I wandered the streets of San Francisco after the bus never showed up, telling me turn by turn directions of how to find the train station and get home safe.
Thank You for having crazy, stupid dance parties to Toby Mac and our other Christian Artists that we thought were so “Hip”.
Thank You for helping me spoil our siblings with trips to see fireworks on July 4th and Lewis Lights on Christmas Eve.
Thank You for teaching me through your actions about how to live with maturity, responsibility, and honor.
Thank You for rolling your eyes and talking sense into me when I get hair-brained ideas to do something stupid.
Thank You for listening and knowing the difference between a hair-brained idea and a dream.. and encouraging me to follow my dreams with everything in me.
Thank You for looking after our family whenever I am off chasing my dreams and my calling – especially when those dreams and callings drag me to the other side of the country or the other side of the world.
Thank You for knowing who you are, and being just that.
Thank You for being my brother.
Thank You for being my best friend.
One of my favorite pictures of us.. because it was the month that I realized how stupid I was for not being your friend.
