Thanks everyone for your continued thoughts and well wishes. My true 180 was huge for me. First, it gave me focus away from WW and thoughts of R, it let me build my self esteem, body, and mind in amazing ways. I’m in the best physical shape in decades. My work returned to 100%. And I had a real, if shallow, acceptance that D was a realistic possibility that I needed to prepare myself.
My WW took my behavior as an insult, then it appeared she crumbled into despair, then she came to me on several occasions wanting to do “everything I asked”. I started feeling guilty and cruel for not reaching her half way. I prayed and found guidance and did open up to her again. Without asking she found a legit good counselor that even the most pessimistic SI friends would find near perfect in his approach. Accountability, transparency, no blame shifting, empathy building, etc.
WW answers all questions I have, is rarely defensive (when she is we just postpone for later), she is accountable for her whereabouts, all her accounts &
passwords, she is remorseful, and most of all she is sincerely empathetic to me. It all feels fragile some days, we had a setback with her past making a real and sudden impact in our lives.
We are Christians, prayer, devotion, fellowship, church, and God’s hand in our lives have been essential. We are making our marriage anew with a Christ centered biblically informed marriage.
I have no idea of the outcome, some days I still fall into sadness over the breadth and depth of her betrayals and deceptions. The selfishness with which she acted during the affairs - and cruelty after disclosure, often hangs over me like a dark cloud. But then the sky parts and we do good work on the M, she is accountable, and takes full responsibility. She blames me for nothing.
Forgiveness will not be a challenge, it really isn’t. Its not my nature to demand repayment for debts I forgive. Trust is an obstacle that some days feels impossible. Day at a time on that. I can’t fault her for any behavior right now and I feel positive about R. There are obviously weeks and weeks of details, but that is where I am.
[This message edited by Apparition at 6:03 PM, February 6th (Saturday)]