Marriage For Keeps

David and I have had some troubles in 2008! I had seen an "advertisement" for "Marriage for Keeps" in the Homeschooling Newsletter and immediately called and applied. We got an appt. and accepted into the program! This is a government funded program on learning communication techniques and tools and working on building a healthy marriage and family! This has been a "marriage saver". We started out by going to a class for 12 weeks, and now we're in the "maintanence" phase of it, where we visit with a Family Support Specialist every 2-3 weeks. When we first started meeting with the FSS specialist, we took a 91 question test to identify our "issues" and then we had them evaluated and discussed them. THen we did a "Focus for the Future", which is basically taking the tools we've learned and identifying issues we still have and how we're going to use our tools and work thru them.

At our last appt. we nearly had a blow up! We found an issue. It was a issue David and I were both passionate about. It became very heated and the FSS was actually worried for us. David got very angry and was actually showing emotion and yelling at me (this never happens!). When this happened, IRONICALLY, I became very calm and reserved and was trying to talk him thru things. Our session was up and we had to go, but the FSS asked us, did we want to table the discussion til our next meeting? or work on it at home? David and I both agreed to let it go and work on it at home, using our new found "tools" and if we were unable to calmly resolve things in one hour, we'd tale it again until our meeting. The next day I suggested to him that he take a notebook to work and carry one around with him. This way, when he thought of the "issue", he can write down any thoughts he has, emotions, or feelings, about it. I would do the same thing. This was so that when we discussed it, we wouldn't just be "flying" with emotions. We'd have it on paper, in writing. What were we thinking? Questions we had, etc. I asked David as we were getting ready for the SuperBowl Party, what we were gonna do, we hadn't discussed it, so we agreed to discuss it that night.

This discussion went very well! We both are at peace about it, it's over and done with. We both got what we wanted out of the situation. We had a great report for the FSS the next day! She was worried! :) David has been doing VERY well with his communication with me and in his counseling sessions. My intuition to start on this journey and David's willingness to go on this journey, has been wonderful!!!!!!!! It's such a different place then our relationship has ever been before! WEIRD! AWESOME!