A lot happened in our lives after we lost Christy. Suddenly life became more precious and we took nothing for granted. We realized what treasures our children really are and we began to change our priorities. Things that once seemed so important to us now were just small matters.

CJ got a job at the State Senate as a Page. It was a job she loved and the people that worked there just adored her. I was hired shortly after her at the House of Representatives. My mother is a secretary at the Senate also so it became the joke around there that we were taking over.

Kacie and Fabian moved out of the house they were living in and into a townhouse. We were never so glad to move them out of that place. Becca still talked about Christy, but not as much as in the beginning. Adam, Jack and Sandy changed also. They seemed to settle down in school and spent most of their time at home. This was fine with Jack because we found ourselves wanting to do more with them also.

One thing we did was take our tax refund and buy camping equipment. We spent almost the whole summer of '95 camping. We even went to California and spent one week north of San Diego camping on the beach, and the following week camping at Santa Cruz and San Jose. We spent time with Jack's daughter Michelle and her husband Miles and our new granddaughter Crystal. (I will admit I was just about sick of camping after two solid weeks of it.) It was a great summer.

Shortly after the kids started school Kacie became pregnant again. I was thrilled for her. When we found out it would be a girl we were even more thrilled. PJ had been only three months old when Christy died and it seemed like we were really to wrapped up on our own grief to really enjoy him. So a new baby was wonderful news.

CJ had met a young man and thought she was in love. I didn't think it was the man God had for her but I prayed with an open heart and an open mind. He was not a healthy person and in desperate need of a kidney transplant. We prayed for a miracle and one day it came. A half hour before going into surgery he changed his mind. He decided he didn't want the surgery! We found out later that he didn't want to get better because he liked the idea of living on disability. He thought it was great to not work and get paid for it. He even thought it would be great to get married to CJ, have a kid and live on welfare. That didn't go over with CJ. She decided she had been through enough junk and she broke up with him. I was praising the Lord. But I also made a desperate plea to the Lord. I told the Lord that I thought CJ had been through enough for one life time. Kacie and Fabian were happy, Jack and I were happy, and Jack's daughters were happy with their husbands. So I asked the Lord to make 1996 CJ's year. I started praying this around September of 1995.

About the same time that I began to pray that prayer, one of the men in our church stated hanging around with Fabian. He was ten years older than CJ and she had absolutely no interest in him at all. (He was a mechanic and she wanted nothing to do with someone who did that kind of work!) Well, I could see that he was in love with her, but I could see that she felt nothing but friendship for him. I also knew that he was exactly what I had been praying for since the day CJ was born. She was hyper, he was calm. She was loud, he was quiet. She spoke before thinking, he thought before saying a word. (Are you getting the picture here?)

Right before Christmas I took Dave (that's his name), aside and shared with him that I believed he was the man God had chosen for CJ. I told him to just be patient and be her friend and if she was willing to listen to the Lord, she would come around. Well, God moved faster than I expected. By Christmas day CJ knew she was in love with him. On January 27, 1996 which was her 20th birthday, Dave proposed to her in front of us. He had a cake made for her birthday and instead of saying "Happy Birthday CJ" it said "Will you marry me?" and it had an engagement ring in the center of a rose that was on the cake. (We got it all on video.) I have to tell you it was great! She saw that ring and grabbed it, sucked the icing off of it, put it on her finger and . . . hit Dave! That's right! She hit him! Not hard of course, and she was laughing and crying at the same time. It was great.