Debbie and Kevin admit now that they weren’t really prepared for marriage.

Kevin says, “and that was hard for me because I really wanted to connect to Debbie.

Debbie says, “Things deteriorated pretty fast… we didn’t know how to be married didn’t have a clue so we were just kind of winging it.

They only knew each other a few months, and hadn’t worked through a lot of issues.

Debbie Lloyd – married 18 years says, “I kept an unhealthy friendship with a guy I went to high school with, for way too long, instead of going to my husband when things got rough I would call him… then Kevin started slipping into infidelity.”

Kevin Lloyd – married 18 years says, “It became easier to connect with other people that I was traveling with then it was to try and work at our marriage.”

Kevin’s cheating on Debbie continued until he got involved with one woman who didn’t want to let go.

Debbie says, “I was very pregnant with our third child, and it couldn’t have been a worse time… for me I was just hit with a baseball bat figuratively speaking.”

You may wonder if a marriage can recover from this type of damage. The answer is, yes it can, but only if both spouses are willing to undergo the difficult work of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Romie Hurley – counselor, Focus on the Family says, “Is the spouse repentant, is the person who has wronged us willing to go through the long haul of when the pain comes up again… and say what can I do now, because I can’t undo the past.”

The process isn’t easy, and forgiveness is a choice. We can choose to forgive the other person long before we feel like forgiving them.

Debbie says, “I had bad days, I got angry, I had my times when I just needed him to be in another room. But I had to choose to forgive because I loved him and had chosen to love him, but it was many many many years before I felt forgiveness.”

In the conclusion of this special series, we’ll find out why Debbie and Kevin felt it was so important to fight for their marriage… and what they gained in the process.