My name is Trula and I’m a happily married woman who lives in northeast Ohio, USA, with my husband Brian. I am a writer and substitute teacher and Brian is a special education teacher.

Everyone always asks us, How did you two meet? with great puzzlement. It’s no big mystery, we met like many other couples: in college, we were introduced by a mutual friend. We met in December 1994 and were just friends for a while. I had just had my son S-bop in November 1994 and was involved with his bio father, and Brian had a girlfriend as well. He was friends with a girl I knew and she introduced us on a day I came back to school to drop most of my classes for the quarter (S-bop was a preemie).

Over time our friendship deepened and he became one of my very best friends. Then romantic feelings blossomed between us and after breaking off our former relationships we began dating Valentine’s Day 1996 and have been together ever since. We got married May 1999. It hasn’t been an easy marriage; we almost divorced in 2002 but decided to stay together and work things out. I am so glad we did…finding our way back to each other and re-discovering our love for one another has been one of the most beautiful things to ever happen to me. Counseling helped us both choose to grow up and behave in a responsible and mature way to each other and our family.

And yes, we both finished college, although it took us a while. Brian finished his degree he started in 1993 in 2000 and I finished mine started in 1989 in 2004. Brian also has a Master’s degree he finished in 2006. He is a special education teacher. We have been blessed to find work that we love to do.

We have 3 kids, a daughter age 21 and two sons ages 15 and 12. Brian is technically a step-father to our two older kids but he has taken care of both of them throughout our relationship and treats them as he treats our youngest; the son we had together. He is a great father and that is one of the things I love and respect about him. When I decided to be in a committed relationship finding a family man was high on my list, as I had had enough of being a single mother and dealing with men who did not want to be involved with their children or mine. We have a blended family that is whole.

Obviously we are an interracial couple. I will talk about that aspect of our marriage a little but it has not been a big deal in our relationship. I want to clarify the purpose of this blog is about marriage stuff that is applicable to anyone interested in improving their marriage and is committed to their marriage whatever the racial or cultural group of their spouse. I have found that the good things in our marriage are things all couples experience and the problems we have had are typical of most marriages. Let me be clear: race issues have come up and I will share them on this blog, however they have been minimal in our marriage. The focus of our marriage is our love, commitment and respect for one another and our children and that is something irrespective to our skin color. The point of our marriage is to improve and grow as individuals while sustaining our relationship, providing a strong framework to raise children in, and developing a strong partnership for life after the children are grown.

I am the primary poster though I will ask for Brian’s input. He may even pop in to post one of these days, LOL. You can subscribe to this blog or bookmark to visit again. You can also check out the Brian & Trula photo gallery and see pics of our family. All photos and pics mine unless otherwise credited. Thank you for visiting!