Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

"I don't think I want to be married to you anymore." The words fell flat in my head like huge granite slabs. When caught in a lie, these are the words my beloved, newlywed husband half whispered to me that night. Technically my night, his morning. You see, I was in Iraq, and he was home in Oregon. He was dropping the 3 year old off at daycare as a matter of fact. He was cheating. He said her name was unimportant, and he wasn't in love with her, but he was "lonely". We can all guess what he meant.

I screamed into the receiver. Told him he didn't have a soul. Told him he would never be even a fraction of the man his father is. Sobbed in disbelief and asked if he had thought about what this was going to do to our family, the kids, our blended family that truly loved each other, the 3 year old who, although not his biological son thinks that the Sun rises and sets at his "Daddy's" command. He stated that he had, but he still wanted to go through with it. I called him selfish, but beyond that what can you say?

That was December 11, 2009. We had just been married February 27th of the same year. I started train-up for my deployment to Iraq at the beginning of April, giving us just over a month of wedded bliss before I left. This was not some fly-by-night hair-brained scheme to make more money. In fact we lost money by getting married, but after nine years of off and on, back and forth, we thought that the fact that we always ended up back together was God telling us something. Looking back, it was probably boredom or the fear of being alone that drove us back together time and time again. We decided to get married. We were deeply in love (at least I thought we were) and living together without any real issues. Of course we had our arguments, but nothing major and we would always resolve, kiss and makeup.

That phone call changed my life in ways I could have never imagined...

To be continued...