We met in 1st grade. We didn't like each other. Competition..ya know, its fierce in 1st grade...our paths didn't cross again until we were in 6th grade. We went to church together and on that warm fresh spring Sunday, I didn't feel like going to Sunday school. She was standing outside of our classroom and I said hey, wanna skip and go to McDonald's? You can walk from our church. She looked me up & down, then replied thank goodness! Yes!
The rest is history. She has been my strongest rock for 25 years. 25 years, can you imagine? I only lived on this earth for 9 years before my chosen sister was all mine for the rest of my life as I know it. She knows everything, I mean everything, about me. The good. The bad. The UGLY. She has been my champion in my absence, my hero during my darkest hour. She arrived at the hospital 3 minutes after I walked in to have my 1st child. She rubbed my back as I went through a terrifying labor with my son. She never questions my actions and always, always listens as I painstakingly try to figure out my mistakes. She loves my clothes. She will meet me for coffee when we only have 10 minutes to meet before we rush off to our busy lives just to see me. She is the godmother to both of my children and she braved a snowstorm to stand beside me when I got married. I cried like a baby when I saw her in the 1st wedding dress she tried on.
She has taught me to love unconditionally. She traveled across the country to sleep on my couch when I lived in LA. She let my pug, the infamous Baby Tattles and I live in her 1 bedroom apartment when I fled to her house from LA, with broken dreams and a broken heart for 3 months...never complaining, only asking me to make her dinner. In doing so, I set her oven on fire trying to make sweet potatoes...to which she laughed and called her dad (my 2nd father) and told him, he needed to get us a new oven so I could keep cooking for her.
She loves my bacon and fried eggs. She loves my jeans. She allows me to be me and has never once asked me to be anything other than her best friend.
Now, he is her sunshine. He makes her world spin. He is making all of her dreams come true. He embraces me and our relationship...and the craziest part about him and I? We are both professional photographers. He is AMAZING. The winner of multiple Addy awards for his remarkable work with the National Guard. He stands next to us and holds her hand, never stepping in between us. He has embraced my family and him & I, we understand each other. We understand her and our love for her.
Now he will share all I have loved and I am beyond honored to stand next to them as they take their vows to walk hand in hand for life...
My April. His future wife. Their love...and I lucky enough to get to capture it...and know I will capture the rest for them, excitedly waiting for all that is to come.
April, thank you for being you. For loving me and for being my hero. I love you from the bottom of my heart.
Follow the circle round and round and prepare to be amazed by THE AMAZING MICHELLE...http://bit.ly/YLfLx9
