Please stop what you're doing and dance...

No pictures yet, but it's midnight our first day in Hawaii, and it is truly paradise. Both of us are stressed because there are too many things to do and not enough time to do it in, but it is amazing. It is more than we could have imagined. More people, more buildings, more poverty, more entertainment, more beauty, more excitement & more creative ways to spend your money than they ever showed us in that double episode of the Brady Bunch.
Its been so weird to take this vacation in the first place when other people who are close to me are having a rough go at life. My brother is struggling with addiction, several good friends are laid off and have small children, there's sickness everywhere, and we're just going to celebrate our anniversary like we don't even care?
Tonight Mike and I sat in an open air bar and were listening to two guys singing to an acoustic guitar and a ukelele (my favorite!)They're called Beach 5 & will hopefully be linked to here . They were singing all songs we knew that we could kind of sing along with. I just LOVED it. The temperature was perfect, our food and drinks were perfect and the atmosphere with the palm trees was just incredible. So then the singers asked if there were any birthdays and sang happy birthday. Then they asked if there were any other special dates out there. I, of course, had just taken a huge bite of my fish taco, so I just held up 10 fingers. He said, "You're 10 years old?" This is in front of about 100 people. I said, "No! Married for 10 years!" So he said, "Congratulations. This song is for the couple who has been married for 10 years." and people clapped. The song was "Still the one". I reached across the table to Mike and took his hands. Instantly everything flooded my mind as I looked into his sweet face. The laughing we do so hard until we cry, the fighting we do over mostly dumb stuff, the births of our 4 babies, how much he loves me just because I'm me and how much I love him just because he's him and how I can't imagine life without him. I said, "Honey, I'm going to cry right now, okay?" and he said, "Okay," And I climbed over to his bench and reached my arms around his neck and he reached around mine and we swayed with the music and just loved each other while the men sang that song for us...IN THE GENTLE, BREEZY, NIGHT IN HAWAII. Can you stand it?
I didn't want to write this to make you puke, guys. I wanted to write this to tell you that we have been through a lot in our marriage. We have had times of mourning and times of "being in the valley" and it is not fun. But let me tell you, NOW that God is leading us through a time of dancing, we are cherishing every second and will NOT take it for granted. One, because we know this will not last (Hello, foster system) and two, because our friends can not all be in this place with us. But if anyone is out there in blog land reading my ramblings and you are in a valley time, please be encouraged. Know that this period will not last forever, that God will get you through your situation somehow, and try to look for the LITTLE ways in your days that you can dance.