When my wife, Louisa, and I met, the first thing she said to me was "You used to live in my house." That was the first of what we discovered to be many times and ways our paths had crossed. While it was "interest and attraction at first sight", the love developed after we started dating two months later. After dating for a year we became engaged and another year later we were married on the beach at a friend's house at Buckroe Beach, VA. On that day, June 18, 1983, my three children and her two joined us as a new "merged" family. At the time the children were ages 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12. I hope you were sitting down when you read that last line. Years later, while showing our wedding photos to her two sons, my daughter asked of me, "What were you thinking?" In the 25 years of our relationship journey that I've written about,we've met challenges that many people meet, such as long distance step parenting, alcohol abuse, loss of a child, loss of a job and primary income, marital separation and reconciliation. The "step siblings" are now of one family, no longer using the word "step" with each other. Four of them contributed to this book, adding their individual perspectives of our journey in the section titled AfterWords. I wrote what has been called a raw and brutally frank book, exposing many of my shortcomings, in the hope that others will realize that they too can confront and overcome what I believe are universal personal and marital challenges. The answer to 'What comes after the wedding?' is not the honeymoon. It is the marriage. Thank you for considering my book.
