Keepers just received word from Pastor Don Brown (SAVE OUR WORLD MINISTRIES) that he will be here on Friday, August 24, to officiate over the ceremonies for John and keepers. I say ceremonies because there will be three separate ceremonies taking place that day. First, Pastor will do a blessing of KEEPERSKORNER. He will bless our new office and he will bless our art studio as well. The second ceremony will be John Michael and big keepers renewing our wedding vows. The third ceremony will be our little keepers finally becoming true family in the eyes of God with our JM. Other than that, I can only say that the plans are in the works but this is what we have come up with thus far.

First, Pastor could take the easy way on our ceremonies and combine them into one so that it takes less time. However, we came to the realization that each ceremony is important within its own right. It is important that our little keepers feel like their unification with JM as family is important to all concerned. Doing that ceremony separately does this for them, I think. Renewing our wedding vows is also something we see as important to do in a ceremony that stands on its own. And blessing KEEPERSKORNER is so very important to us but is something that should be separate from the other two ceremonies. So, Friday will probably be a long day but a very joyous one for everyone concerned.

John Michael is trying hard to figure out how to get pictures of everything since there will probably be no guests present. There are a great many people we would like to invite but we know they would not even acknowledge the invitation so we would only be bringing ourselves greater pain by reaching out and asking those individuals to be present. So, getting pictures is a real challenge but one JM is working on for us. We know he will come up with a wonderful solution and keepers will have pictures to post on our blog and our site the next day.

The one common thread throughout the ceremonies will be candles. One candle will be lit in our blessing of KEEPERSKORNER. Somehow, this will become a candle that burns in the office window perpetually from now on. We are figuring after the ceremony we can switch to an electric candle that can be on at all times. This is being done from an old tradition to burn a candle in the window so that those who have left home can easily find their way back. This will be the purpose of our perpetual candle in the window here at KEEPERSKORNER.

Then, Pastor suggested that JM and keepers do a Unity Candle which is an idea that keepers love. So, during our vow renewals, that part of our candles will be lit. Around our unity candle will be several smaller candles for the little keepers to light during their ceremony and do a Unity Candle Lighting of their own.

Keepers have a multitude of littles in our system. Too many for each to participate on their own–largely because JM is afraid somebody will be forgotten and very hurt by that. So, what we are going to do is have Beth bring her littles up to the Unity Candle and light their candle for them. Beth takes care of our little keepers under five so she will have her hands full. Then, Polly will do the same for her littles. Polly takes care of only three of our littles. Keepers have always seen them as so bad and so dirty that they have been hidden far away from the world from the beginning. However, during this ceremony they will be brought forth and accepted by both JM and big keepers. Then, Terrence will do the same for the keepers he takes care of which are our keepers between the ages of six and eleven. And lastly Sarah Christine will come forth and do the same for our teen keepers. At the end of this, all keepers will be family with our John Michael after 38 years of dreaming this to be true.

Keepers are hoping that our JM will buy bigs a bouquet of roses for our ceremony. We want two white roses to represent peace in our new family. Then, we want two yellow ones to represent keepers friendship with our John Michael. Then we want two peach or circus roses to represent the fun and joy that lies ahead for JM and keepers. And lastly, keepers want the rest to be red roses that represent our love for each other and the passion we have for living our lives in service. Those will be the flowers for our renewal of vows.

Then, our JM is taking our little keepers to the florist’s shop. Each little keeper will get to pick and buy his/her own favorite flower. During the ceremony, Beth and Terrence and Polly and Sarah Christine will bring their keepers up to the vase and place the individually chosen flowers into it for the keepers they take care of. When the vase is full, it will represent the wonderful array of human beings that make up the system of alters known as keepers. Each group of alters will be told that the flowers they have chosen are placed in the vase to show their beauty as individuals and that each one has gifts which help make up our system of alters.

Keepers are thinking that maybe we will do the blessing of our studio and our office right here at KEEPERSKORNER. This seems only appropriate since our work happens here and we always asks God’s blessings for what we are doing.

For the renewal of vows and the little keepers ceremony, we are thinking about asking JM and Pastor if we could go to a park and perform the ceremonies out in the open and among nature. Keepers think this would be an awesome way to do the ceremonies but we have to ask our JM and Pastor if that would be alright before we move ahead with planning this.

Keepers have chosen the dress we will wear. It was one we wore to a wedding a couple of years ago. It is a long dress but not really a dressy one. We know that the dress has some painful memories attached to it but we think we can lay those to rest and all agree to use this dress as our ceremony dress that day. Hopefully, we will be able to post pictures of keepers in the dress we have chosen carefully.

After the ceremonies, we will take Pastor out to dinner and just have some quality time with our dear friend. We have already chosen the restaurant. It is one where everyone can get a little bit of what he/her loves to eat.

So, by Friday evening, our little keepers will officially be a part of a family that really does want them and love them. KEEPERSKORNER will be blessed and move forward on a better footing with God. And John Michael and keepers will have been reminded what our marriage is all about in the renewal of our vows.

Someone asked if keepers would light a sparkler during the ceremony to represent the presence of that system at our ceremonies. So, after their ceremony our littles will certainly light that sparkler in honor of our friendship.

Someone else also suggested that we do a family license (much like a marriage license) so that our littles know their unification in the family is really official. We are going to do the license and have it signed by JM and keepers and Pastor so that our littles can hang it here in the studio so they will always remember the day they had their own ceremony. The license will definitely have a place of honor on our WALL OF WONDERFUL.

Keepers wish so much that each of our cyber friends could be here with us that day. But we know our friendships span the world and it would not be possible for anyone to come. Still, each of our friends here at KEEPERSKORNER will truly be in our hearts that day and present with us through our thoughts if nothing else.

peace and blessings,

keepers