Melanie and Lance: Marriage Lessons from the Back of a Harley!

Today’s featured Spouse Date couple is Melanie and Lance Fischer!

Melanie and her husband Lance live in northern Alberta Canada and have been married for 18 years.  They have a blended family with three children: a 20 year old daughter (Melanie’s), a 24 year old son (Lance’s) and an 18 year old daughter, recently adopted together. 

 

I was working as a cashier and my husband was a customer.

Our first “date” was my husband coming to my daughter’s 1st Birthday party. Our first “alone date” was dinner out, then Slurpee’s in the park.  We were encouraged to keep dating because we both had children and both wanted to move on with our lives and both had similar ideas about moving forward.

We have had a few exceptional dates. One was on an anniversary where we had a camp fire dinner of lobster, grilled asparagus and more.  And, we ate on the edge of a cliff overlooking a waterfall.

Another exceptional date was a catamaran tour in Mexico followed by a dinner on the beach. There was a fellow playing the saxophone during dinner and my husband took my hand and brought me out on the beach under the stars and the sax player followed us and gave us a private song for the two of us to dance to.

Strong minded. Struggling, yet always managing to hold our marriage together.

Extreme differences in most facets of our life. We are certainly from different planets. There is no one on this planet that will be exactly like you, so you can spend your life trying to change them or embrace who they are.

A long marriage, and having raised great kids.

Our kids. They have taught us more about us than we could have ever learned from a book.

My husband did the The Love Dare for me about 5 years ago and that played a huge role in turning our marriage around.

Also we read a bit of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus and we learned a bit about the differences between men and women.

I have also come across a few devotionals from Rick Warren that has spoken volumes into our marriage. One in particular is Focus on Reconciliation, not Resolution.  There’s a big difference between those two words. Reconciliation means re-establishing the relationship. Resolution means resolving every issue.  Although my husband is not a believer he resonated deeply with the message in this devotional.  

I left my husband 5 years ago and was convinced that he was the problem.  However, I quickly realized that wherever I went, there I was. Marriage takes work from both sides, but work that is well worth it. The Aha moment was when I realized that marriage is a commitment that we made in front of God and is not to be taken lightly. I have become a better spouse ever since I have pursued a commitment to being a good wife.

My husband first off said “death” but then burst out laughing, so that is good that he was joking! lol! I am excited to continue growing together.

One where we both genuinely enjoy ourselves. My husband says a nice quiet evening, I like a bit more excitement! Our ideal date is where we can do both at the same time which would likely be incorporated into camping, motorcycling or fishing.

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Melanie and Lance completed this interview while on an amazing Harley motorcycle trip of Canada’s west coast!  Check out her marriage lessons from the back of a Harley below!  

You can also connect with her at her website Hungry for Purpose.