It was a Tuesday night when I told my wife I was leaving her.

Kelly was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher after dinner. The kids were upstairs in their beds, and I noticed the house held a kind of peaceful calm before the expected storm.

I cleared my throat as I approached the kitchen. Kelly looked up and smiled. ‘This is going to be the hardest thing I will ever do.’ I thought.

“I have something to tell you, please sit down.”

With her gentle eyes still smiling I spoke quickly, “I want a divorce. There is someone else in my life and we want to be together. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

As the carefully planned words came tumbling out of my mouth I knew they sounded cliche and cowardly – even if they felt true to me.

Kelly remained calm as hurt replaced the smile disappearing from her gentle eyes. She stayed quiet for what felt like hours, but were merely endless minutes. She spoke.

“Kevin, I know you’ve been unhappy, restless and distracted. I know you’ve been absent for months now, and I’ve missed you. All I’ve been able to think about is the first hours of our marriage almost ten years ago when you carried me across the threshold of our new home and we began life together as man and wife. Our love was sweet, our faith was strong, our hope was endless.”  She paused and told me she would like some time to think before we talked about what’s next.

I slept in the den that night. I felt so free sleeping on the couch dreaming about my future and how happy I would be with Claire, the woman who was waiting for me to complete the business of divorce...READ MORE