Another dawn, another gift, and a bit more of God's plan revealed....Yesterday, the wife spoke her first real sentence to me since Sunday.  I spent the intervening days planning the dissolution of our marriage and the deconstruction of the empire we've been building.  Scenarios of the reactions of friends and family played in my head for hours on end.  Other than my parents and my sister, I've kept the events of the past year to myself.  Didn't want my play dates with friends to turn into a pity-party.  I knew the Lord was holding a pocket ace that would be played on Wednesday.  The women's pastor from our church had prevously scheduled a visit with my wife for that afternoon.  My fear was that, in her current state, my wife would cancel, but she did not.  So I breathed a quick prayer as I entered the house, and listened.  A familiar patter of tiny footfalls was quickly followed by the welcome site of my little guy and his usual joy-filled greeting.  He'll be two next month.  My wife was on the stairs.  Since I had not seen her out of bed since Sunday night, I took this as a good sign.  She began with the usual litany of how I betrayed her by staying in touch with my family after "promising" otherwise.  (Not to put too fine a point on it, this promise was made under the weight of an unending verbal barrage, so I never really felt compelled to keep it).  Since I tend to see the glass as half-full, I reminded myself that at least she was talking.Somewhere in the middle of this, she said she wanted us to start therapy.  Bingo!  That was all I was listening for.  Not once in this tirade did she mention her meeting with Pastor K.  I had to ask.  Yes, she kept the appointment.  Interesting that she did not attribute her change of heart to whatever was discussed between them. I have an appointment with the men's pastor on Monday.  It will be my first opportunity to unpack the baggage that has been my yoke for over a year (twelve years, really, because the real root of this goes back to our beginning as a couple).  I've been waiting for this.  I've been praying for this.  Like a pack mule that sees his stable after a 100 mile trek across the desert, I can cover the remaining distance on hope alone.