Dancing with my husband

“Love is a choice, and I choose…” -a line from the song Michael wrote for our first dance

Leaving our wedding reception, August 8, 2008

Life has never been boring for me since being married to–make that just meeting–Michael Franco. On our first date, we had dinner and then got ice cream. Then, we got a phone call from a friend and decided to join a group of friends hiking up to Black Balsalm to camp out. Michael cheerfully dragged by huge blue Walmart this-girl-has-never-camped-before sleeping bag AND pillow all the way up there–while holding my hand to help me climb over all the rocks, since it was very, very dark. I really need to blog about all of our adventures in dating before I forget all the crazy-cool-and-sometimes-sketchy things we did.

Like this.

Can you spot my huge blue Walmart sleeping bag? The Cool Kids use those itty-bitty roll-up-into-a-mummy-tube sleeping bags. I’m with my dear friend Lauren on top of Black Balsalm in this picture, the morning after Michael and I met her, her now-husband Jason, and several other friends up there after our first date. I am thrilled to be moving to the same city as her again.

In just five years, Michael and I have been through so many different experiences…moving out of state to a place where we knew no one…three job changes…moving out of state again…making new friends…having three children…starting and running our own business…buying our first home…trying to cut his arm off with a chainsaw…twice…and all in between, those oh-so-common ups and downs and we’re-just-trying-to-figure-all-this-outs of young marriage and parenthood.

I hope this song blesses you as much as it has blessed me. A friend posted it on her blog a few months ago, and it has stuck with me this summer especially. The lyrics…oh the lyrics…

I was nineteen, you were twenty-one
The year we got engaged
Everyone said we were much too young
But we did it anyway

We bought our rings for forty each
From a pawn shop down the road
We made our vows and took the leap
Now fifteen years ago

We went dancing in the minefields
We went sailing in the storm
And it was harder than we dreamed
But I believe that’s what the promise is for

“I do” are the two most famous last words
The beginning of the end
But to lose your life for another I’ve heard
Is a good place to begin

‘Cause the only way to find your life
Is to lay your own life down
And I believe it’s an easy price
For the life that we have found

And we’re dancing in the minefields
We’re sailing in the storm
This is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that’s what the promise is for

So when I lose my way, find me
When I loose love’s chains, bind me
At the end of all my faith, till the end of all my days
When I forget my name, remind me

‘Cause we bear the light of the Son of Man
So there’s nothing left to fear
So I’ll walk with you in the shadowlands
Till the shadows disappear

‘Cause he promised not to leave us
And his promises are true
So in the face of all this chaos, baby,
I can dance with you