Devine Intervention

A year and a half ago, after numerous failed attempts at making their marriage work, Rose and Scott had found themselves a gnat’s hair away from a physical altercation that took place in front of their two small daughters, Hailie and Zoe. The argument not only scared Rose, but terrified their oldest Hailie, who had been only inches away when their screaming turned to shoving. She inserted herself in between Rose and Scott and began yelling, “please daddy, stop yelling at mommy”.

Those words quickly jolted Rose back from the rage and hurt of finding her Husband of two years’ texts to yet another woman he had been spending time with. She quickly jumped to soothing her four-year old’s uncontrollable sobs, while trying to quiet her own. She could not believe what was happening, what almost happened, and right in front of her precious children! Rose felt the bile rise in her throat and said the words she had never dreamed of ever saying to the man that she loved unconditionally to the very depth of her soul, “Scott, I think it best for us to separate before things get out of hand anymore than they just did. For our daughter’s sakes, and our own. I love you, but I need time to cool off and think.”

Scott, who had been sitting on the couch since the moment Hailie screamed at him, looked at Rose with bewilderment and said, “Separate? Rose how are we supposed to fix things separated?” “What about the girls, won’t it hurt them more to not have us all together?” He shook his head and began to cry.

Rose, trying to only think of Hailie and Zoe, asked Scott, “If all we do is fight and argue, scream and yell at each other, what good is that for the girls?” Rose had no idea the right thing to say or do at that moment, her only thought was to make them all safe, and being together was not safe.  She called her Mom and asked her if they could stay a couple of nights to let her and Scott cool down, then they would go from there. Defeated and heartbroken, she packed a couple of bags for her and the girls, tried kissing Scott goodbye, then headed to her mother’s house.

She fought the urge to call Scott during the long drive to her Mom’s. Reliving every adulterous moment she had caught him in, every moment missed with her daughters because of his “working” with his brother, every holiday that ended in hurt feelings and lost time, but also every sweet moment with him and the girls, every breath taking moment of happiness, their wedding, the girls’ births, all of it. She searched her soul trying to find the answers that might reassemble their broken hearts and lives, but the answers did not come.

At about midnight, she pulled into her parent’s driveway, her mother quickly outside to help the girls inside and into bed. Although the two of them were not as close as what Rose would have liked, she knew her girls would be safe, and that was all that mattered. The rest could be handled in the morning. She said a quick thank you and I love you to her Mom and then curled up next to her daughters and tried to get some sleep.

Sleep, however short, was dream packed. Her mind would not settle over the recent events of her failing marriage. Once scenario after the other kept replaying till she gave up the hope of resting and decided to get up before she woke the girls, they really needed a good night’s rest. Looking down in the bed at them as she eased herself up, trying not to wake them, she could not fathom a life without them.

That night would be the beginning of a year and a half of, for lack of a more fitting term, hell. Scott would go and come as he pleased, run around with more women, refused to help financially with raising the girls, and play emotional and mental games of manipulation.

Rose became so depressed from the things between her and Scott till she lost her job as a Corrections Officer and started pulling away from all the people in her life. She even went so far as to seek professional help because she could see her depression was starting to affect her girls, and their happiness. Life as she knew it had ceased to exist and she, for the life of her, could not pick up the pieces. She desperately needed a change, a break, a new beginning that would be good for them all, she just could not figure out what it could possibly be or how to achieve it, so she sat down and prayed.

Rose sat in the kitchen floor crying as she prayed, “Dear heavenly father, I come to you as your humble servant. Please show me the way to a better future for me and my daughters. Please help me to rid my heart and soul of the love I have for the man that does not return the feelings I have for him. Please, Lord, help me to find away to end the toxic relationship between us before it hurts anyone beyond repair. Please find a way for us to be able to move past the hurt and be the parents our daughters need. In your name I pray, Amen.” As she stood and wiped her eyes, Rose could not imagine the upcoming path the Lord would send her on.

A couple days later, Scott called to get the girls for his days off. Her mother, a user of methamphetamines, approached her for a “girls night” where they would sit and talk about Rose’s plan for getting past her losing her job, being able to raise her daughters as a single mother, and how she was going to rebuild after the impending divorce. They sat at the kitchen table, smoking and talking for hours. The time talking and bonding, even though it was centered around the use of drugs, was almost refreshing to Rose. She had always longed for the day when her Mom would take an interest in her and try to become close for the first time in her life. She hated that it was centered around the one thing that kept them apart for most of her life, but she knew her girls were safely tucked away in bed at Scott’s house.  She hated feeling so defeated and depressed to even consider such a thing to help numb her to the pain of it all. The loss she felt was so intense, she felt that just once would not hurt, boy was she in for a rude awakening.

The next morning, after rearranging the living room to better suit her girl’s playtime, she quickly got ready to head out for the appointment with her divorce attorney. As she went to leave the house, her whole world went black. She came to at a gas station 65 miles away, four hours later, with no memory hallucinating. Not realizing her mind was not seeing reality, she envisioned her daughters in the car one moment, and gone the next. Doing what any parent would do, she dialed 911. Upon their arrival, Rose was arrested, her nightmare just beginning.

As the news of her arrest reached Scott, he quickly devised the plan to obtain emergency custody of Hailie and Zoe and to file for divorce. In one short week, Rose lost the battle for her husband’s love, her daughters, her car, her reputation, and almost her freedom. 

Looking back, she realizes the Lord answered her prayers and gave her a new path.