When last we left Kennett and Amanda, they were trying to get the support of their families to work things out.  Amanda came home, but was cautious about her optimism.  Still, she agreed to try.

 

After several weeks of spinning their wheels, Kennett and Amanda decided that they had to stop tip toeing around the issues and start talking about what really went wrong.

 

“Kennett was shocked when I left, but he should have seen it coming”, Amanda said.  “Things had been pretty bad for awhile and every time I tried to talk to him about it, he would look at me cross-eyed, as if he had no idea what I meant.”

 

“I knew there was a problem”, Kennett said “But, I hadn’t the slightest idea how to fix the issues and I was overwhelmed.  I kept thinking it would get better on its own and it never did.”

 

Together they sat down and tried to talk about the problems, but Amanda was steadfast in her belief that Kennett was the problem and that he would not change. 

 

Kennett decided to go to a counselor on his own and he did make some changes, but Amanda really didn’t acknowledge or encourage the changes.

 

“There is a lot of water under this bridge.”  She said “And I guess I feel he has to do more to prove that he means it when he says he’s going to change. 

 

After all this time, I’m not going to just accept that he is serious until he has been at it for a few months.”

 

That was a problem for Kennett. 

 

Without any acknowledgement of his efforts and with nothing to spur him on, his new habits soon fell by the wayside and they were right back where they had started.