Welcome to our adventure!

Welcome to Michael and Sarah's New Llife blog!

One of the qualities that Michael and I share is our sense of adventure. First, I will share 2 or 3 quotes about adventure to set the tone, these are found on www.quotationspage.com:

You must pray that the way be long, full of adventures and experiences.
Constantine Peter Cavafy


There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
Jawaharlal NehruIndian politician (1889 - 1964)

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.
Helen KellerUS blind & deaf educator (1880 - 1968)

Second, we have chosen June 21, 2010 to be our wedding day and the first official day of our life together. However, since we met our life has been adventurous and filled with love, laughter, kindness and affection and this truly is the just the beginning!

Third, I heard a song tonight on the new Celtic Woman DVD, Songs From the Heart, the song was called Isle of Hope/Isle of Tears. I was reminded of how this is just the beginning of our life but it is because of adventures of other people in our life we have the opportunities we do today. The song is about a 15 year old girl who stepped off the ship in January 1892 at Ellis Island from Ireland, and how she missed her homeland but new she was beginning a new life in America.

My grandparents left their homeland of Holland to come to America after they got married. They didn't have the means to return to Holland to see their family for fourty years. They started a new life as immigrants, learned English, had a family and lived a happy life. They were were the most wonderful grandparents ever and they loved each other and their family dearly. I also have ancestors who walked in the Mormon handcart companies across the plains to Utah to a place unsettled with unknown hardship ahead of them. They made the sacrifice because of what they believed in.

Michael's Irish mom left her family and freinds and bravely came to the United States to work as a nanny for an Irish family in Washington DC. Luckily she met Michael's dad, who was a U.S. Marine, when she and her friend went to a little Irish pub one night. Michael's dad deployed several times to fight for the freedom of our country as a career Marine. Michael himself was deployed to Iraq and served to fight for something he believes in. We both come from a long line of adventurers but who also had a deep sense of character and responsibility to live a life of substance.

As the song described a young girl facing a new future, it is fitting as we embark on a life together. However, we would be ungrateful if we did not honor where we've come from and know that we would not be who we are without all the people who have been a part of our life. We would not have the opportunities we have withouth their sense of adventure, their willingness to overcome fear and uncertainty, and be willing to work for a better life. Now we are adventuring into a new life together and will face fear and uncertainty but plan to move forward together and share all that the journey has in store for us.

As Celtic love knots intertwine and show how lives intertwine together, so are we starting our life together but also weaving in friends and family we love and who share our journey with us. To all of y0u -- thank you -- for being part of our life.

More wedding details to come...love Michael and Sarah