For Curtis and I the beginning happened before we met.

At the age of 15 I received the only marriage advice I consider worth repeating.

“Marriage is not 50/50 it’s 100%/100%!”

The same preacher encouraged me to begin to pray for my future spouse’s well being, protection and choices. I took that to heart.

Curtis and I met through mutual friends while serving in the United States Air Force.

He was in Germany and I was stationed in England, but I had a temporary duty in Turkey that routed me through Germany for a few days.

During that meeting we played chess, went out as a group to dance and go to local clubs.

I had mentioned that I was being reassigned to Aviano, Italy within a few months to which Curtis replied, “Me too!” I was skeptical, but since I would never see him again I said nothing.

We did meet up again in Italy.

We formed a long best friend relationship before taking a chance on dating.

When Curtis finally asked me out on a first actual date he neglected to bring his wallet along, just one more patch in our quilt of a fun and beautiful story.

We got engaged and chose to get out of the Air Force to give our marriage together a better chance for success.

(Prayers and blessings on all those who serve and maintain a marriage and family!)

After we got back to the United States, Curtis completed his Laser Electro-Optics degree, we married, had our first baby girl within a year and I worked at the Ventura County Jail as a records technician until the first of many job opportunities came.

We moved to Colorado for Curtis to take a position with Ball Aerospace in Boulder. Due to personal circumstances I struggled in Colorado and Curtis responded by moving us to Iowa, close to my family.

After a great ride there opportunities dried up and we began to understand that we needed to consider relocating our now family of six. We had had two more daughters and a son in our eight years in rural Iowa.