My Wedding Day(s)

As you may notice by my title, I have had more than one wedding day. The first one happened when I was 19 years old and didn't really understand what marriage was all about. I got pregnant 4 months into the marriage and really didn't think about it much beyond that. 9 months later my first child was born in a teaching hospital in Iowa City, IA. We came home and started our family life together. I won't bore you with every detail, but suffice it to say 29 months later my second daughter was born as I was in the process of getting divorced from my first husband and starting a relationship with my second husband. My daughters are now 26 and 24 and are no longer in my life. We divorced after only 4 years of marriage.

I married my second husband when I was 27 and started life as a cop's wife and stepmother to three little girls. None of them really liked me much and again, without going into too much detail about it, I ended up divorcing him after nearly 10 years. I absconded with a vehicle and what possessions I could carry in the back of it in the middle of the night (literally), and left him a 3 page letter on the kitchen table without telling anyone in my family where I was going. I did, however, tell some trusted co-workers with express directions that they were NOT to tell him where I was or what had happened to me. I did not wanting him finding me as I was hoping to get divorced from him.

Now, 10 years later, I am happily married a third time, have an 8 year old daughter and finally enjoy my life and being married. Life is good to me and this is what marriage should be.

Had I known nearly 30 years ago how my 1st two marriages would have turned out, I would not have knowingly gone through them, even if it meant losing my first two children (I lost custody of them to their father when they were 6 & 8) because I don't have any contact with them anyway, and you can't miss what you don't know.

Life is much better for me now and there isn't one thing I would change about it, except maybe have two more children than I do. But, God blessed us with just the one and I'm not taking her for granted!