Five years have come and gone since the day of the wedding.

Laura and I found a new home and took possession in November… three months after we were married. It was only a street away from Sarah and Bobby, and closer to our church and the school where Laura taught and Hanna attended. It was a beautiful five-bedroom home with a great kitchen, open floor plan, and a large back patio complete with an outdoor kitchen. There was enough room to put in a pool if we so decided.

One important feature, one we demanded in our list of must-haves, was the large master bedroom with an ensuite and a very large shower with multiple shower heads and a seat. It was the perfect play space. Almost every shower we took was together.

The other, and most important consideration was that the master suite was far away from the other four bedrooms. This became a necessity when Hanna approached Laura and I one evening and her question made it clear that she could hear us in the bedroom.

While we’re talking about Hanna, she was now fourteen and was as good a teenager as Laura and I could hope for. She had a real heart for God and for people in general. She was a beautiful girl, very much favoring her mother. Laura once said she was so thankful neither girl looked anything like their biological father. Me too!

Hanna became a very accomplished pianist and had a fantastic voice. She and I have been singing duets at church now for about four years. She also had done some solos and always brought tears to my eyes when she did. Yes, I still cried a lot.

Laura also had a beautiful voice and had joined Hanna and me as a trio on occasion. It turns out she also played the piano very well but hadn’t had one since she was a child. I took care of that void on our first Christmas together. We had a designated music room in the new house and we were filling it up quickly.

Mattie held a tune very well too. Her voice is just starting to mature and her tone is gorgeous. She began violin lessons and I was teaching her some guitar.

Mattie was growing to be a beautiful girl. She was more rugged looking that Hanna, maybe a little tomboyish, but still was very beautiful. She was more strong-willed that Hanna, but she was also a very well-behaved young lady. She had something of an artist mentality, which can be a challenge. Two weeks ago, we had “THE” talk with her because she was starting to ask questions based on things she heard from friends. It went well but I think we’ll need to watch her closer than had been necessary with Hanna!

July of the year following the wedding, Laura and I welcomed Collin into the world. He’s now four and a true boy terror. Laura was used to girls, so Collin was more of a challenge for her. But her teacher discipline skills really paid off with him. I found the need to be more of a disciplinarian with our son, but we were very close and enjoyed our sports and man time together.

Hanna loved taking care of her brother. She’s also secure that I was true to my word. I loved Hanna and Mattie just as if they were my biological children. As far as I’m concerned, they were my children. No one went without kisses and hugs and feeling treasured, because they truly are. Every Thursday night was a date night with daddy. Each of our angels takes a turn going with daddy to the Chinese restaurant. It was a true high point for me every week.

Our last addition (and final thanks to some snipping I had done) was two-year-old Bekah. She had some medical issues with her lungs after birth, but had become a strong, healthy, and happy child. I started including her in the date night rotation. I could get lost in her little giggles, which seemed to flow nonstop.

Laura’s dad passed unexpectedly from a heart attack last year at the age of sixty. We grew very close over the years and I really missed him. Laura’s mom, Helen, moved in with us the day John died. She’s been a joy to have here and was starting to recover from her loss. She has been a great help with the kids and has been very active at our church.

Helen and Laura had the same openness that Laura had developed with Hanna. She shared that the night John died, they had made love. After they made out for a while as the fire died down, they ended the evening with a hug, words of gratitude, and told each other of their love. They drifted off to sleep and he never awoke. Helen shared that she felt guilt, but Laura set her straight. Making love didn’t hurt her dad. If anything, he had the most awesome sendoff into the next life anyone could ask for. He knew he was loved!

Once that was off her chest, we saw a change for the better in Helen. She’s still a beautiful woman (How can she not be? Laura looks just like her) and she became friendly with a gentleman from church who was about five years younger than her. She asked Laura the other night if it was too soon to consider marriage, so I think they were getting rather serious.

Sarah and Bobby now have two children. Their little girl, Deanna, was almost five. Their son, Matthew, was born a month before Bekah. I told them, jokingly, of course, to keep him away from Bekah. In the back of my mind, I think it would be great if their children and ours fell for each other. It would be great being more closely related to that loved and loving family.

My business was doing very well. I creatively added Sarah to my staff (which is only Sarah and me) as an administrative assistant. She was a huge help on many levels. She not only worked for me, but she ran a daycare in my basement office for our children and theirs.

Recently, we added another child to the daycare mix, which brings me to where Megan was these days. She started coming to our church and met a wonderful man who was ten years her senior, Dave Pearson. They were married a year after Laura and I were, and live in my old house. When they wed, they bought out my half of the home ownership. They also had a little boy, born about two years ago, who was now in Sarah’s informal daycare.

It was heartwarming to see Megan reclaim her life and build a strong foundation. Laura and I do socialize with Megan and Dave, although it was mostly with Sarah and Bobby too. I’m so glad we were comfortable with each other. I didn’t know if it could ever be that way, but I thanked God it was.

Was everything perfect? No, we were all human and have our faults. But I couldn’t imagine life being better. Laura and I never had a disagreement on a significant issue, much less have we ever had a heated argument. Fortunately, that scary night at the mall a week before our wedding was the worst test we’ve faced. Laura realized several days after that incident that she was so used to managing the girls by herself that she needed to change her thinking to make me her parent-partner. We both were comfortable with the responsibility God had assigned us, and the honor that came with that loving role.

My only habit that annoyed her was that I tended to put socks and shirts in the laundry inside out. I tried to be good, but occasionally messed up.

What was Laura’s habit that tweaked me? She liked to leave lights on in rooms that are unoccupied. It was a pet peeve I think I inherited from my dad. I fixed that by putting motion-sensing light switches in rooms like the laundry, bathrooms, and closets. She pretended to be annoyed by my solution, but I secretly think she was happy to avoid my nagging.

Laura and I showed no signs of slowing down in our passion. We didn’t make love every night, and some nights we make love two or three times. It was not planned. Whatever happened is spontaneous.

But without fail, we went to bed every night at least an hour before we wanted to sleep. We may not always make love in the coupling sense, but every night we loved each other with caresses, cuddles, kisses, and roving hands. Massages were frequent especially when her monthly visitor arrived. They gave us even more opportunities to explore and transmit love through our touch. We both decided we liked to sleep in the nude. The closeness we felt was so warm and comforting, and nightclothes just seemed to get in the way. And we used that big shower to its full potential, sharing the water pretty much every day.

We did plan certain evenings as play-dates. Experimentation, toys, new positions, and other fun things were all in play. Some stayed in our repertoire, others were one-and-done. Again, there was no set schedule. But once a week on average, somewhere during the day one of us would give the secret sign that tonight is playtime—a pointer finger to the tip of the nose and an impish smile. We’ve never turned the other down for playtime requests.

I started every day the same. I have a comfortable chair in my office where I could close the door, sit, and start the day in prayer and reflection. Starting each morning focusing on your blessings sets the tone for a wonderful day.

Occasionally I would feel a little sense of dread that things could enter our lives and challenge us. But I knew I could face them with joy because I’ve seen God’s hand direct our lives and I trusted His plan. He’s taken two people whose lives were a complete mess and brought us together to share a love neither of us thought possible.

Our two broken roads brought us together.

Have you ever tried to define infinity or how big the universe is? Words fall far short. The same is true if I tried to describe the joy that was born from those crooked paths!