Repercussions

I've been away from the blogging for a while, mainly because I needed a little down time after the craziness of the holidays. Family time and travel always wears me out. I've also been busy with different writing projects and trying to keep on top of my other two blogs. Sometimes I feel like I'm writing, writing, writing all the time, so a break every now and again really helps. But in all, I've been doing pretty well. At least, considering the circumstances.

And these are the circumstances:  Last week, my husband had to - in less than more eloquent terms - face the music for his misconduct at work. If you've read any of my other posts, then you know that about four months ago he relapsed and spent a few days looking at things online that are completely prohibited at work. Since he works in a high security environment, everything he does is monitored. Of course this means that when he does wrong, he is immediately found out. It's taken the last four months for his superiors to investigate, convene, and hand down a ruling as to his punishment.

And here it is - *deep breath* - two weeks suspension without pay. I knew this was coming, but at the same time it was a little hard to swallow. The good that's come out of all of this is two-fold. My husband's recovery and testimony have become very important to him. He has three different sponsors/accountability partners who have helped him every step of the way through the last year, but especially through the last four months. The second good is that our relationship has been healing. I feel it every day. The wound no longer bleeds as excessively as it once did and it's amazing the depth our relationship has garnered since his relapse. And quite honestly, with the final punishment in place, I feel God has lifted much of the fatigue and weight from my shoulders.

Every day, every week, every month, every year is still a long journey - steps that we take slowly. The interesting thing about his workplace investigation into his actions, because of what he did and the fact that he was completely honest with the investigators and his superiors, is that they have now launched ten more investigative cases into ten other men's careers and lives at his workplace. The sad reality is that my husband's actions are not rare and are becoming more frequent in any given workplace environment. He just happened to get caught. But once the lie and the sin are brought into the bright shining light of day, it's very hard to hide them anymore. And I'm glad he can't hide them. And so is he.

Are there any repercussions your spouse or significant other has had to face for his/her actions?