So much has happened in the past 1.5 weeks... where to begin?
I last posted here sometime in the day on Friday, May 17th. Late that night, DH called me and said we needed to talk when he got home, and it was really important, and it didn't matter how tired I was, it really needed to happen that night. Of course, I couldn't sleep after that anyways, waiting for him to get home.
When he came home (long story short), he gave me the most round-about "this is going to end in divorce" speech I've ever heard. Plenty of clichés present such as "we're just too different from one another now." He said he couldn't stop feeling "betrayed" by the fact that I had asked for a separation, even though he acknowledged that I had really good reasons for it. He expressed interest in starting at square one with dating me and trying to get to know me again, and I said "Screw that. We've been married almost ten years and I'm carrying your second child. I'm not going to pretend that we don't have a history when we do." Our separation and near-divorce from years ago was one of the most traumatic experiences of my adult life (he had left me suddenly and without any attempt at reconciliation), and I hated that he was moving towards forcing me to relive it. I realize that I'm the one who asked for a separation, but I did so with constructive goals in mind. I said, "This is what is wrong with our marriage, and this is how you can fix it." In contrast, he was insisting that the situation was beyond repair---same as he had 8 years prior.
He also pissed me off because he insisted that touching, snuggling, hugging me felt "unnatural" and "wrong," and that is why he has been voluntarily sleeping on the couch. Yeah, funny how he never has anything to say about how "unnatural" and "wrong" it feels when he's hard as a rock and desperate for sex! Men! I swear.
Saturday, May 18th was just horrible for me. I spent most of the day sobbing in various places around the house. Of course, DD noticed and asked what's wrong, and I couldn't help it, I just blurted out, "What's wrong is that your daddy doesn't love me anymore." I felt awful for saying anything about it in front of her, but I just couldn't hide it anymore.
That night I was sleeping in bed when he came home around midnight and woke me up. He tossed our separation agreement on the bed and said that he wanted to tear it up and work things out with me. Then he launched into how sorry he was for the way he had been treating me, how it was true that he had gone about Bimberly's rides all wrong the entire way, how he should have listened to me when I said how much the partying hurt me, how he hadn't meant to be so negligent of his family, that he wanted us both to be able to talk about our problems and find constructive solutions to them, and so on. He was more humble and apologetic and engaged to all of the things I have been saying than I have seen him in years. He was like a completely different man from the man I had spoken to on Friday night.
The one thing he said that pissed me off was that he claimed he hadn't been serious about the divorce-speech on Friday night, that he'd only wanted me to think divorce was imminent because it was the only way I would listen to him. I just don't have words for what kind of manipulative bull**** that is if true. But we'll come back to that in a second.
Let's get back to Bimberly. So, on Friday morning, May 17th, Bimberly texted him and said that she would no longer be needing rides from him, and that she needed to cancel their dance rehearsal that night. She did not say why, but he knew something was up. On Saturday afternoon, May 18th, she sent him a very lengthy text explaining to him that she has been talking with his wife and it sounds like their friendship has been coming between his marriage, so she felt like they need to put their friendship and dance partnership on hold for the time being so that he can work on "what's really important." So, there's the reason for DH's about-face. Bimberly now has her own car (she got it last week sometime), so the rides will never be an issue again.
On Sunday morning, I went to church with DH to talk to his church leaders. I said he had talked to me last night and seemed to be repenting of his behavior. His bishop asked if I would support him in getting a temple recommend, and I said yes. Beyond that, who the Mormon church wants to let into its temples is really none of my business. His bishop signed off on the recommend, leaving him with needing a signature from his stake president (more on this in a minute).
DH asked me to talk to Bimberly for him since she pretty much won't talk to him, and I did. I let her know that I was feeling better about the state of our marriage and I appreciated everything that she had done for me. I made her a peanut butter and jelly pie (I make damn good pies) and dropped it off where she works on Monday, May 20th. But that's it. I get the impression that DH would like it if I talked to her more and pushed her harder to forgive him, but I won't. That's between him and her. She feels that he lied to her and manipulated her (guess what? he did!) and she won't forgive that easily.
This past week we have done a lot of talking about finances, jobs, goals, and our other issues in our marriage. DH has been very apologetic throughout. I still have a lot of concerns and a lot of things are making me feel very wary, but I'm trying.
Last night he called me up sounding really despondent and saying Bimberly is right, he was lying to and manipulating both of us and he deserves everything that's happened to him and has only himself to blame and it doesn't sound like she'll ever forgive him. He claims he was planning on reconciling with me for a long time, but just hadn't done it yet, and it's his fault for waiting so long. I asked him why he's even bothering trying to get a temple recommend, because one of the questions on the temple recommend interview is, "Are you honest in your dealings with others?" I asked him how he answered that question when he was asked by his bishop, and he admitted that he said "yes." But now he says, "You're right, I haven't been honest with the people who matter most to me, and I really don't deserve one." I don't think he's going to bother trying to get a hold of the Stake President before we leave for the wedding on Friday.
Anyways, that's where we're at now.