It’s been twenty four years since my wife and I said “I do.” We were in Connecticut then as we are today, but have put thousands and thousands of miles under our feet and have lived in four homes in four states. We started in Gettysburg, PA, then moved to the Phoenix area in Arizona where our children were born. Then, we moved on to Richmond, VA for ten outstanding years where our kids grew up and we grew into some unbelievable adult friendships and our kids grew with their “other” parents. Finally, we moved to Connecticut, back to where Sue grew up and where I visited briefly to get married so many years ago.

Twenty-four years have been both good and challenging to us personally and to us as a couple. There have been bad times and good, horrible rentals and great homes, nightmare jobs and seemingly perfect ones. The children have grown up without the benefit of living in one location, without the benefit of close relatives who could pick up a night or weekend to let their parents get away and reconnect. They have learned that they can adapt, survive, and thrive in a new environment. They benefit from experiences that their new friends have only read of, and are more resilient than all their friends combined.

We have camped on the beaches of Mexico, gone 4-wheeling through rural Arizona, spent a night on the Hopi Reservation, and survived driving all our worldly goods across the country a few feet apart, in separate vehicles and without communications for a week, just 3 months after getting married. We’ve driven the family back across the country to relocate to a new area without friends, only to find friends that turned into family. And a decade later, drove 500 miles to the north where we had no family, only one job, and had little to look forward except opportunity, challenge, and financial reality of a new, very difficult financial reality.

Over the two dozen years, we’ve gone through periods of unemployment, extended travel, the birth of two children and the purchase of three homes, and we’ve done more than most married couples will ever do in their lifetime.

After all of this, we’ve survived stronger than most couples. We are starting into our 25th year of marriage, significantly stronger than most couples. I am so thankful of each day of those 24 years, ready to keep adding onto the daily count as we keep on progressing down the road.

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