Beth, I never really thought in terms of I'd made a promise and come hell or high water I was going to see this promise through to the bitter end. For me, I don't think that's what made me stay and be the LBS (twice). If it was only the vows, I don't think that would hold me.
When I think about it, for me it was a combination of several things. One, it really didn't take a whole lot of the good times to sustain me. I was generally quick to forgive and forget and so as long as we returned to a semblance of normal then I was okay for another go. The other factor is that I never thought the problems were insurmountable. I kept thinking, and do to this day, that all it took was work and that both of us were willing to make the effort. I guess I trusted that I had met and married someone with the same conviction as me. Perhaps that's part of the blindside; I didn't see it coming because I didn't think it could be coming. I don't know if it was the vows made that gave me that impression or thinking I knew my wife and that she would fight for us as she always had in the past.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. Theodore Roosevelt
