Almost 40 years ago, the girl in the red and blue and green sweater dress sacheted into the single adult Bible class I was teaching at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas. In addition to 'the dress' she had a mink coat draped over her shoulders. I was IMPRESSED!
We had such a stormy relationship...on again, off again, on again. Two years later in the spring of 1988, we finally decided we should make our relationship permanent, and were married by my Dad and my best friend.
I'd like to tell you it was 'Once upon a time...they lived happily everafter.'
What we discovered the hard way is that the new always wears off. Little things we overlooked during courtship began to fester.
One of the quirks of our relationship was our counting anniversaries by the month until we had more anniversaries than our kids had birthdays...saved lots of explaining. It took us two years to get there.
Along the way, I found the traditional list of the 'gifts' to give for anniversaries. So, each month, Barb got one of those gifts. When we got to the end of the 2nd year, Barb told me we weren't working and she was thinking about a divorce. I told her I had been faking it until perhaps we made it, also.
Barb had lunch with one of here girlfriends who had been at our wedding. They discussed her desire to quit. Maggi began to cry when Barb told her...said she'd been at our wedding where we promised one of us had to die to get out of our marriage.
Barb came home, reread our marriage vows, wept, and then stole my wedding band. She took it to a local jeweler where she took 3 small diamond bands and had them inserted in my band. I thought I'd lost the ring.
When we reconvened, we had...perhaps...the most serious conversation we had ever had. We spoke of things like: we are smart people, why can't we get marriage right...what don't we know how to do...who can we go to to get help. We talked way into the night.
For the next year and a half, we scoured the universe in search of the gurus who were teaching others how to 'get it right.'
It worked!!! We began to practice what we had learned and almost over night we began to experience the joy which had thus far escaped us.
We were so excited about the renewed enthusiasm we had for each other and for our relationship, we decided we should share what we learned with other couples.
That's when the germ of the idea for 24kGoldMarriage was born. Since then, we have been sharing experience, strength, and hope with couples who want to know how to get it right.
So, here we are...then 1986 and now 2026. Doing the work, enjoying each other...perhaps we'll dig out the outfits again in another 10 years.
2026 was an elegant dinner at the SILOs in Celina, complete with roses and chocolate covered strawberries. Great memories
If you want what we have...holler. It's a great ride!
THEN
NOW
