Italy 2004

Falling in Love with Italy

Eight years ago,

Taido and I walked hand in hand in the streets of Italy.

It was December.  We were celebrating being married for 10 years.

We fell in love with the Renaissance in Florence, we picnicked in the ruins of a Tuscan hill town, and we succumbed to the charms of Venice.

It was a gloriously perfect week, a treasured time that we point back to again and again.

Ahh, Remember Italia, we say to one another.

I’ll be sharing a few stories and journal excerpts from that dreamy week while I am gone making new European memories with Mary Polly.

Here’s a little bit of what I wrote on the plane ride over:

I feel like I’ve been blessed beyond what I could have imagined.  I am praying for blessed time with Taido and for a week full of beautiful memories that will carry us as things get crazy in the next 10 years.

I am so thankful for our marriage and so thankful for all the people who are watching our kids to make this week possible. I am not just celebrating our anniversary, but also God’s amazing faithfulness to us.

It’s funny how I am having a lot of the same sentiments now.  I am so thankful for 13 years with Mary Polly and I am praying for more beautiful memories that will carry us through the rest of adolescence.  I am praying that she will point back to this experience with so much joy.  That when she remembers this trip, she will feel extravagantly loved.