Building a Civilization of Love Marriage Matters

How did they meet? Using the 7 Stages of Marriage as a framework for your questions, invite them to share a memory from each stage of their marriage.

Stage 1 Beginning:
Parents: We met at a bar in Medicine Hat Alberta. He was living in Edmonton and traveling with a band out of Grand Prairie. She was living in Medicine Hat and was on a night out with the girls.
Dad: At that point in my life I felt that I was going to get married at some point in my life but I definitely did not think it would start out while I was on the road with a rock band.
Mom: At that point in my life I was not really interested in marriage but also believed that one day I would meet my prince charming Stage 2 Romantic Love:
Parents: We spent a lot of time together when dad was not on the road.
Mom: Eventually I moved to Edmonton where he lived and continued to progress as a couple.
Dad: The more time that I spent with her the more I knew that she was my princess charming.

Stage 3 Power Struggle:
Parents: During these times everything was more stressful due the fact that we were unable to have children when we wanted to.
Mom: My biggest issue with him was that he was never on time when we wanted to go somewhere or needed to be somewhere.
Dad: I couldn’t stand the fact that she was always right.
Stage 4 Stability:
Parents: We were always able to overcome our struggles and forget about them because in the grand scheme of the relationship, we knew that these struggles really did not mean anything.
Stage 5 Recommitment:
Parents: We have always been able to overcome any challenges that have laid in our way because we both know that we will always love each other no matter what. The stages 3, 4 and 5 have happened many times within our relationship but we have always been able to forget about the things that we disagree on and find a happy medium.

Stage 6 Fruitfulness:
Parents: We went through a lot of stages including stages 3, 4 and 5. But we have come to see that since we have been able to overcome all of these challenges, that we can overcome anything together. Being able to appreciate the joys of parenthood has really helped us grow closer as a couple through mutual admiration and respect.
Stage 7 Growing Old Together:
Parents: experiencing our children grow a mature has been at times stressful but ultimately our greatest joy. After watching our children grow and progress as individuals, we are looking forward to enjoying spending time with them as they progress into adulthood and eventually become parents of their own children.

What criteria do they think are essential to a successful marriage? We believe that in order to have a successful marriage there are a couple key characteristics that are needed. A sense of humor, respect, fidelity, friendship and common morals and values will always be very important characteristics within a marriage or at least those are the main characteristics that our marriage is based around. What “real life”