Steve and I met each other and started dating in 1994. He has 2 girls and I have 2 boys from previous marriages. Our kids got along with each other very well. He and I had talked alot about getting married and decided that we would stop in Conway, a small town about an hour from our home town, and get married by a Justice of the Peace. We went to the courthouse, bought a marriage license, and got a list of JP's. We made a few phone calls and were soon on our way to a house just a few blocks away from the courthouse. Within 30 minutes we were pronounced husband and wife by a JP that had married people from all over the world. We would spend our honeymoon at the Indy 500!

I had never met Ron and was actually a little apprehensive about it. He was in a car accident approximately 25 years ago and is in a wheelchair. Although I have a brother that has down syndrome I was still uncomfortable around strangers that have a disability, mainly because I didn't know what to say to them. That was no longer a problem for me after meeting Ron. He made me feel very comfortable around him. He made our trip to Indiana, and our honeymoon, very memorable. I had a new brother-in-law who had given me a new perpective of life. I now see people for what they are on the inside. I am blind to crutches, wheelchairs, and other handicaps that used to scare me from talking to people that are different from me. What I could not see at this time was how this would help prepare me for what was ahead.

Our kids were a little disappointed with us, not because we had gotten married but, because they did not get to see the "wedding". They were all very happy that we were now a family. My two sons and I moved into his house as soon as we returned to Arkansas and we started our new lives together.

The next several months were spent having alot of fun together. We would go driving on the weekends, in one of our 4 wheel drive trucks, and end up in the woods several miles from our house. Our favorite place to go was a small lake surrounded by acres of wooded land. We would end up downstream from the main lake where we spent hours swimming, skipping rocks, and exploring nature. We also loved to take short trips to places like Branson, Missouri and Hot Springs, Arkansas.

We also spent the next several months learning to get along as a family. Now the kids had someone else they would have to share with. Learning to share their love came easy. The hardest part was sharing the toys! Steve and I had our good times and our bad times together. We had to learn to deal with alot of issues that came along with a blended family. We had our fights and we had our joy. Each of our careers were going very well. We bought a house together in January 1997. Steve's daughters lived with their mother and my sons lived with us. The girls visited with us every other week and we wanted a house big enough for all of us. Things started going extremely well for us and could not have been more perfect, then we were hit with a major change in all of our lives.

July 3, 1997. The Day Before Steve's Accident
Steve had just finished working on his Jeep CJ7. When Steve and I got off from work we picked the boys up from home and went out for a ride in the Jeep. We stopped at a fireworks store and bought alot of fireworks. Later that night we went outside and had a huge fireworks show. We had alot of fun.