Anniversary

My wife Trish and I will celebrate our 6th anniversary tomorrow. It's been said that we loved paying taxes so much that we decided to make April 15th our anniversary. Actually back in the spring of 2000, we faced an unusual set of circumstances that made April 15 the only possible date we could schedule our wedding so we turned an unpleasant day into one to remember with pleasure every year.

This is the second go-round for both Trish and me. My first wife died in 1998 after a seven-year battle with cancer. We had celebrated our 25th anniversary two months before she passed away. A year and a half later, Trish and I discovered one another. I had studied the Bible with Trish and had the pleasure of baptizing her into Christ. We became friends and friendship blossomed into romance. Several months later, we were married.

Six years later, we're continuing the adventure. It hasn't always been easy. Of course, marriage is never always easy. That is especially true when two forty-somethings (now fifty-somethings) try to mesh their lives together. However, it's been a wonderful, amazing journey. I feel so blessed to have found Trish and I hope she feels something of the same regarding me. She is a very special person in a hundred different ways . . . a Hospice nurse, a faithful Christian, a Bible teacher, a loving mom and grandmother to her children and mine, and my best friend.

We're leaving this morning on an overnight anniversary trip. . . just a road trip to spend some time together and enjoy one another's company. We're traveling down the Florida coast a little ways heading east from Pensacola to Fort Walton, Destin, and then wherever we happen to decide to go.