Some of you who've been married 5, 10, 15, even 20 years might be thinking "it's too late for me." But you're wrong – it's never too late, or too early, either, to improve your marriage.

Our book was written for engaged couples, but recently a woman who had purchased three copies later bought three more because she and her husband found it helpful for married couples as well. In fact, several mature couples have bought our book for themselves.

So it isn't too late – you can decide right now to make your marriage better. And why not? Remember, today is the first day of the rest of your life!

ABOUT BOB AND BARBARA

Bob and Barbara Hickman have been involved with helping couples enjoy and appreciate their marriage relationship for over 20 years. They believe that their strongest qualification for helping these couples is their own long term, satisfying marriage, along with the information gleaned from reading numerous books on how to make a marriage lifelong, happy, and fulfilling.

They first became actively involved in helping couples shortly after their first Marriage Encounter weekend. Less than a year later they added extensive involvement in Engaged Encounter, with the objective of assuring the existence of a marriage preparation program for their own teenage daughters when the time came.

For many years they were a presenting couple for both Marriage Encounter and Engaged Encounter. They also established and served as president of Lutheran Engaged Encounter of Northern California and served as president of Lutheran Engaged Encounter International. This led them to create a one day workshop called One In Christ for engaged and newly married couples unable to attend a full weekend program.

Bob and Barb were inspired to write this book when they were approached by a friend whose daughter, living in Madagascar, was about to be married and had no opportunity for pre-marital counseling of any kind. Since then it has been praised by a number of reviewers and publishers and used by both engaged and newly married couples. This updated edition, the first offered to the general public, was at the request of yet another engaged couple.

Bob has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. He worked as a research scientist and manager and is now retired and an active church and community volunteer. Barb has a B.A. and an M.A. both in Speech Communication and has had additional training and experience in family, marriage, and pre-marriage counseling. She previously offered workshops in public speaking and currently hosts a local weekly television talk show, "Grassroots Issues." An active member of Rotary International, she's also involved in local politics and volunteers in many church and community activities. Her next project is to create a series of books on public speaking for children. Their family includes two married daughters and four grandchildren.

For more information about these activities, see www.Barbara.Hickman.net