I sat down a few weeks ago and wrote this long story.. I was nearly finished with it and facebook made it disappear. I was so mad it took me a while before I could think about it again but....it's time.
As I have mentioned several times I am an only child.
My heroes have always been women who've raised big families. One of my favorite women of all was my mother-in-law, Maggie Brown. I remember meeting her once before I fell in love with her youngest child. I didn't believe he had 10 siblings, she assured me he did. I guess you could kind of say I loved her before I knew I loved him. Her birthday was yesterday. She's been in Heaven going on five years now. I thank her for having that last baby, for raising him the way she did and for welcoming me into her family like I was one of her own.
It was May 31, 1981. I was soon to be a senior at the University of Montevallo and was working for the summer at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center in North Carolina. I was not interested in meeting anyone "new" but my girlfriends back at school kept telling me I had to meet Michael Brown....he went to a jr college in south Alabama and apparently every girl I knew had met him. All I kept hearing was he was funny and had pretty eyes. He was going to be transferring to UM and I needed to be a good ambassador and make him feel welcome. I had no more interest in "finding" him at Ridgecrest than finding a new species of poisonous plant, but on that first day, I saw this young man standing on the staff center steps...he was surrounded by girls....they were all laughing. I thought to myself, "Oh brother, that must be him, he must think he's just hilarious, I'm not buying in". I didn't actually meet him that day, I don't think but I count it as meeting because I knew who he was even without anyone telling me. Later, my roommate Kay actually introduced us and I have to admit, he was rather charming but I still had no intentions of "liking him".
One day I had been to a clowning workshop...I was really interested in that form of ministry, had been since Godspell. I was in my whiteface makeup and suspenders and who should I run into but Michael. He was sweeping the porch. He stopped me and asked me who I was. Of course a good mime NEVER talks with whiteface on so I made him guess. He figured it out in a little while then asked with all the exuberance of Victor Garber himself (Jesus from Godspell) if I could do that to HIS FACE! That was the first clue I had that there might just be some substance to this pretty boy. I nodded yes and was on my way. We had several encounters that summer, all crazy and fun, one night the staff was going on a hayride. I had decided not to go but was walking along the road when the truck came by. I was literally pulled up onto the hay by laughing friends only to find there was not one square inch to sit on. I felt hands pull me down into a lap. Then a sweet voice made a comment in my ear I won't repeat in this story but I will never forget. I sat there stunned that a "preacher boy" would be so bold and thankful that the dark hid my red face.
Later, we talked about what we wanted to do in life. I made it pretty clear that one of my biggest priorities was a big family. He never discouraged me at all. I even told him I might even want a children's home....he thought that was a great dream. I have to say I was impressed. He was all the things my girlfriends said and more.
So to make a long story one you'll finish reading, we talked and talked and talked. He came to Montevallo and we really talked. By Thanksgiving he was helping me through a really tough time I was having personally, at Christmas he came to my house, by January I knew I probably wouldn't want to live without him and in February he proposed.....six times. I just couldn't commit! I kept telling him that I really wanted to trust him but I had been burned. He waited and then asked again. He says he finally just talked me into it. I suppose that could be true and I wonder what on earth my problem was in the first place!
We just celebrated 27 years of marriage and today as we drove home from the same mountains where I first saw him entertaining those girls I was thankful that God knew what would happen when this only kid and the youngest of eleven met.
He still makes me laugh all the time.
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