So, What's This About a Circus?

Inspired by Marie, I recently decided our blog was due for a bit of an update. I didn't design the new header, but discovered it out on the internet and decided it needed a home with us. Hopefully you like our new look. While I was perusing potential headers, I got to thinking about our blog and about our life. It made me realize that it was time to change not only our look, but our name. And suddenly I knew that our blog needed to be "Embrace the Circus."

Perhaps you're wondering why I'd do that. What does that even mean, "embrace the circus"? Let me tell you. Because that, my friends, is a very good story.

The phrase "embrace the circus" was born (at least for our purposes) on -- of all days -- our wedding day. We had a marvelous wedding day. We were surrounded by friends and family for a ceremony in a gorgeous little chapel and a reception overlooking the Hudson River. We had all the trappings -- a saber team, a breathtaking West Point setting, our very own bagpiper, beautiful bridesmaids and darling flowergirls and an irepressibly charming ringbearer who had offered to wear camoflauge when we'd told him there'd be "soldiers" there. And yet. Oh, and yet.

We were married the spring after September 11th, when everyone was still working out the details of tighter security. On the day of our wedding, security at West Point's gate was backed up for more than two hours. Wedding guests -- even members of our wedding party -- waited in a long line of cars. They waited well past the start of the wedding! Our wedding was delayed as long as possible to allow our guests to arrive. Even so, our chapel wasn't close to full when the ceremony started. My grandparents arrived midway through the service. My godmother miraculously appeared just before she was to read scripture. Jim's ring disappeared at some point, and my father pulled off his own wedding ring for us to use. In short, the day was a bit of a circus.

Now, I'm a detail person. I like rules and organization and order. Lack of rules and organization and order can make me a little, well, anxious. So, having a circus on my wedding day should have made me a nervous wreck. But at some point during the chaos, Jim uttered the phrase that is now a Golby standard: "Embrace the circus." And so we did. We decided not to worry about the myriad things we couldn't control. Instead, we focused on celebrating the start of our life together, on enjoying the friends and family who'd joined us, and laughing at the circus we'd unwittingly created.

And, in hindsight, God couldn't have given us a more fitting start to our life together, a sort of foreshadowing of the chaos and laughter and love yet to come. Our little family has a wonderful life -- we have have each other, we have two sweet and funny girls, we have good friends, we've lived in amazing and interesting and beautiful places, and we have a loving and powerful God. We have more than we need. So much more. And yet. Oh, and yet. There are always things that don't go the way we'd like them to. There are separations. There are disappointments. And life is generally a little more chaotic than you'd hope. My house doesn't look like Martha Stewart's and my meals don't look like Julia Child's and sometimes I bribe my toddler just to make it out of the house (much less out of the commissary).

But if we focused on all that, we'd miss the joy that we have right now. And we do have so much joy. So when things get crazy (and they always do), we try to remember to "embrace the circus." And that's what we'll be sharing with you all -- a glimpse into our wonderful, beautiful, circusy life.