A perfect match

On September 25th my brother Christopher married his beautiful bride, Jenn. (We won't linger on the fact that Henry children can only marry people with their sibling's names who also have siblings with their same names. My husband Chris has a sister Laura, and Jenn has a brother Chris.)

Last year we were playing a Q&A game at work and my question was "Who is your hero?" I automatically said "My brother." He is the most hard-working, inspiring, disciplined person I know. In fact, he earned the nickname "Christoofar" because he sometimes goes so overboard it can make us roll our eyes. For my birthday he wrote on a card "Laura, always burn your candle at both ends." I called him laughing that he wrote a negative saying on my card. He said "No, I didn't. Don't you know the Edna St Vincent Millay poem? (he then recited it to me...what landscape architect can rattle off poetry?! ) You give off more light if you burn them on both ends. Here's the poem:

I burn my candle at both ends, It will not last the night.
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends,
It gives a lovely light.

— Edna St. Vincent Millay

Yet he's perfectly honest about everything he does. He rarely watches TV. He says "I'm not one of those people that looks down on people who watch TV. I LOVE TV. I'd watch hours and hours, but then I feel so lazy and unproductive so I figured out stuff I like to do just as much." You know what he does? Rosetta Stone to learn spanish and piano keyboard lessons hooked up through his computer. During college he decided to focus his landscape architecture projects on helping people with autism and other sensory perception disorders by building safe outdoor spaces for them to learn and explore. He is now writing a book that already has interest from some publishers. Rather than "sell out to the man" after college by building pools, he and Jenn went and lived on a farm in Ohio helping teams of adults with autism that worked and lived there. Oh, and he does all this while running over 30 miles a week.

To Christopher it is great to create a huge light and a feeling of exhaustion once he reaches a goal. Me? Not so much! Do you have a little tinge of hate for him now? Problem is he's one of the nicest and funniest people ever. Plus, he's very positive despite inheriting the "What IF?" worry gene.

Who does such an intense person find to marry? Well, someone who has more creativity and eye for detail in her pinky toenail than 99% of the world. Jenn does wood carvings, screen printing, fixes cars, can build anything. Oh, and she's beautiful too...but once again so nice and thoughtful that you feel guilty at that itsy bit of jealousy that creeps up.

The thing about both of them is that they are persistent and hard working. I wouldn't say that smarts came to my brother naturally. He worked hard all through school and that has given him more discipline than I'll ever have. Although, I think back to when we were little and he always had that intense discipline.

Their personalities came through in every part of the wedding. Instead of going to some reception hall that does everything, they had their wedding on farmland near the Sheanandoah mountains. Everything had to be trucked in since there were no buildings. The amazing details were everywhere. I walked around with my jaw hanging down the entire time. My wedding looked totally boring, and we served breakfast for dinner for goodness sakes!

I'm excited to hear about Jenn and Christopher's next adventures. They are off to Chile in January to teach English...and from there, who knows...

Here are a few photos from the wedding:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=233998&id=571700851&l=79fdde38ca