Welcome to the family, Shelby.
With the massive task of attempting to frame such a meaningful engagement weekend, I’m simply sharing Corbin’s letter to Hud’s new fiance’. This seems to capture it.
And the letter’s ending, my favorite part of gifting the perfume ~ all Basden and Esther’s idea.
Dear Shelby,
One of my favorite memories of Hudson growing up was his excitement of figuring things out. How to build something, how things worked and how to make them work even better. He would get so excited to share his new discoveries: the perfect Lego creation, how to precisely skip the rock, or mastering the riding lawnmower at the lake. Later, his curiosity moved to more complex things like how does the microwave heat food or thankfully for me, how do you work all electronics in the house with one remote.
He was always so eager to share his new discovery or invention, and it always brought the biggest smile to his face as he explained it to us. As he grew up, there have been seasons where his smiles were a little harder to come by. There were fewer people he wanted to share his curiosities and discoveries with… and then came Shelby. Shelby, your friendship, love and interest in Hud has brought his smile back in a big way. He wants to share with you his discoveries, his curiosities and along with those, his heart. I can tell he feels safe, admired and respected by you.
HUD has always been a natural leader, and I can tell you even as his father, I have often appreciated following Hudson. He always gets you where you’re going and typically faster, better and more efficiently than everyone else. Shelby, I love watching you follow Hudson. But even more, I love watching you honorably challenge him, support him, keep him on track, focused on truth, and caring for him more than I’ve ever seen anyone outside of his mother do before.
Shelby, you’re the most fun, joyful, others focused, caring, gracious person I could ever hope for my son – and I think I may have realized these things about you even before he did. Spending the entire day at the Auburn Rodeo with you, Hope and Esther your sophomore year, I saw in you someone who so evidently Loves the Lord first, and then others so selflessly. (very unusual for a sophomore college student).
Just like with TJ and me, I think the process of falling in love for you and Hudson started several years before your official first date. Not a doubt in my mind the Lord has been working a perfect plan for you and Hudson that just took you guys a little while to catch up with. He wanted you to be best friends first, which along with a shared pursuit of Christ, makes a great foundation for a marriage. I love you Shelby and especially love you as Hudson’s soon to be wife.
Lastly, while we all appreciate the sweet aroma that you already bring to any room you enter, at the request of Basden and Esther, I wanted to share with you a gift of the sweet fragrance of the Wilson girls to add to the beauty you already have. When TJ was pregnant with Branson, there was a season she wasn’t feeling quite as lovely as she always is, and I took the afternoon off of work and went to Neimans and spent 2 hours finding the most beautiful aroma I had ever smelled. I had it wrapped and delivered to her at work, and it has filled the room any time she enters it ever since. It is a reminder of the beauty that the Lord has created in her and the pleasant aroma he brings through her wherever she goes. I gave the same bottle of perfume to Basden and Esther on their 16th birthdays with the same reminder of the beautiful aroma the Lord has put in them. Today as a soon to be Wilson girl I want you to have the same perfume, and we’ll leave it up to Hudson to replenish your supply of Izzy Miyake or a beautiful fragrance he spends hours discovering for himself. So grateful for you Shelby Marvel and so excited to see how the Lord uses your marriage to Hudson for his glory.
Corbin
