Chris and Pat

“When we’d been together about four years, we went through the ‘low valley’ of our relationship. Since then we’ve learned new ways to live and love. Back then, Chris had gotten laid off from the title company, and Pat had to take up the extra burden by taking on extra hours at the hospital. Then Pat’s mom got sick, and between the doctors and the nursing home, things started to get really crazy between us. We’d never really been argumentative, but the stress must have done a number on us. We fought about everything, lots of things I guess that had been buried before.

“At any rate, when we started to work with Jeff, we were at a low point—even talk of splitting up. Because we found a safe place for our conflicts, we were able to eventually fall back on the strong friendship we had before we were a couple. The love was still there, but life sort of led us astray. That realization led us to a place where we could still have arguments—now we call them disputes!—and actually work through them.

“Are things perfect now? No, not by a mile. But we found that we were able to re-commit to each other, to keep building on some of our old dreams. Most of all, we know we can weather the storm together and somehow stay afloat.”   Ring Me