I am getting married at age 57 in less than 5 weeks! I can tell you that I’ve had a lot of questions and comments from friends and family wondering why I would do this in this season of my life. I’m not sure if some feel I’m too old or some feel I should just stay single and enjoy it or if some think it is a mistake. What I know and am truly excited about is that I met this man four years ago and he has become my very best friend in life.

We both have been married before and we both went into those marriages with the plan that they would be for life. For different reasons we both did not end up in that lifelong relationship but we learned a lot about ourselves and what is important in a marriage. If we weren’t confident that this second marriage will be for life we wouldn’t be taking this step.

We will be having a church ceremony because it is important to us that it be done before God and other witnesses. It is a holy  and sacred step in our becoming husband and wife. We also will be having a reception for celebrating with our family and friends.

After this day will come the hard work, commitment and also fun.  What I love about our relationship is that I can’t wait to tell him things about my day and he does the same. He makes me laugh constantly and has a gift of using humor appropriately to work through conflict. We  love holding hands and showing affection (appropriate lol) in public even if our friends give us a hard time. We look forward to time together after being apart and always have a “date” night.

We do talk about hard things such as the possibility of one of us getting sick or one of us dying before the other. We have to face that we are not “spring chickens” anymore. We also have discussed financial issues since we both came into the relationship with finances, including retirement plans and life insurances and I have children and he does not.

What I look forward to is having this man by my side through the good and bad times of life. He is my rock on this shaky ground called life. He is willing to listen when I need to vent. He is willing to give his thoughts but not push them on me. He is willing to admit if he is wrong and also willing to confront me when I am wrong. We balance each other with differing opinions and yet we have the same convictions when it comes to faith in Jesus Christ. We both believe we are forgiven and redeemed sinners who can count on each other to love and forgive in the years we have left as a married couple.