Friday June 30th, 2000

Today is a day for much reflection.

One year ago today, I was blessed with the rarest of opportunities. First, perhaps a little background: I met Faith the summer I turned sixteen. We had a mutual friend who happened to stop by my house one afternoon with Faith in tow. I don’t remember the circumstances of why they stopped by, but I do remember one thing: Faith. The moment she walked into my sight, I knew instantly that this was the girl I would marry. I know it sounds corny, but it really is true. Faith and I dated a couple of times and, as luck would have it, we decided that we really didn’t like each other all that much! We did stay in contact, though. So much so that we became the very best of friends. It seems that we were always there for each other.

After high school, I moved to Seattle for a girl I was seeing at the time. Needless to say that didn’t work out, so some months later I moved back to St. Louis only to find Faith engaged and about to move to Texas! This was it! I just couldn’t let her do it! We had been through way too much together and she meant everthing to me. I proposed to her in February of ‘89 and we were married four months later. As time passed, our marriage slowly began to disintegrate with the immaturity of our youth. Six years after we married, we were divorced.

Two and a half years ago, we were sitting on some railroad ties at Logan’s school during a cub scout meeting. All the boys were playing on the playground as we sat and watched. Naturally, we sat together (this may seem odd for most divorced couples, but for us it was like instinct- we always stayed together) and this time I just couldn’t help but wonder if she still had those feelings for me. After spending nearly a week trying to convince myself to talk to her about it (”She’s going to think I’m crazy!” , “She will probably laugh and tell me how ridiculous I am”…) I called her and we spent several hours on the phone. We had both been feeling the same thing and after many hard lessons, the time was right to try to put our family back together under one roof. And that is just what we did. We found a house that we all liked and after much haggling, we closed on our present house on July 30th, 1999. This was not the hilight of that day. You see, it was on this day, one year ago, that Faith and I were re-married.

Charlie, thank you so very much for performing our ceremony! This past year has been the happiest of our lives!

We went out to dinner with Stephan and Christine tonight. There is a little place out here in the county called “Big Chief Dakota’s”. Excellent food! I had the opportunity to try calamari. It was rather good! I may have to have it again! The conversation we had was quite amusing. That was the fastest three hourssince, umm… since… well, since lunch with Charlie and Matt!

So many things have passed this last year. Time shared remodelling the house: the bathroom renovation (the floor looks amazing! -thanks to Faith), the new siding on the house, the baseball game I actually enjoyed- all made better because of the people in my life I am blessed to share these things with.