Congrats on the dog. Good you told your W ahead of time you'd be keeping it--just in case.
Also, congrats on the way you're handling everything. I actually see a lot of signs of progress: she's opening up emotionally, she's asking for your help, she's rethinking her decisions. Good!
Be careful when you select the IC. I had the worst IC and MC and this didn't help. A lot of IC's steer people toward ending their M, so make sure you talk to them and ask all kinds of questions to see if they are solutions-oriented and pro-marriage. What some IC's do is to relive all the painful stuff, which leaves the client drained. I felt drained every time I saw my IC. Our MC was so bad, he said we had no hope, and that he saw no committment from my H. Then he started to talk about his own D, and later told me he might've made a mistake bc he was looking at things from the perspective of when he had a D, and was biased. Great. What a waste.
