Stephanie & Kelly
Lathrop, Missouri
"My name is Stephanie. I stood for our marriage when my husband, Kelly, faltered and had an emotional and physical affair with a coworker. Until the day I found out, I thought we had the marriage people only ever dreamed of. Our jobs were great and our children were wonderful (I have two adult children from a previous marriage and we have one daughter together). I always felt safe with Kelly and trusted him, even during arguments and disagreements. We even connected with a wonderful church family and had some terrific friends from a small group. I always knew that Kelly wasn't big on church but that he believed in God and His Son Jesus and how He died for us on the cross and rose again. I found out on December 6, 2017, that Kelly had been having an affair with a coworker and that he was telling her he was ready to leave me. I didn't think he actually wanted to leave and I believed Kelly when he told me he didn't expect the relationship to last so long. The affair had been going on for about seven months. I was in shock and felt my entire world fall to pieces around me. Over the course of the next several months, I felt like I was in a war zone. I stubbornly thought I was doing everything right and Kelly just needed to end the affair but God had other plans for us. For ME. I probably did everything conceivable wrong. I shared Bible verses with Kelly, tried to get him to go to counseling, tried to reason with the other woman and guilt-tripped and manipulated him. Eventually, my emotions got the better of me, and I left home. I didn't go far and I didn't leave our marriage but I left the war zone that I slept in every night. I then turned to Jesus more than ever. My flesh got the better of me more times than I will admit but Jesus just kept holding me and showing me I needed to keep standing, especially by giving me some amazing miracles! My youngest daughter and I were living in an apartment in town; I had left our home and I had not slept next to Kelly for the two months since I left. That was the longest we had ever been apart in about 15 years. Then I attended a women's conference where a speaker told the story of Hannah from 1 Samuel. I felt like God saw me! Hannah was me! I felt provoked and mocked by the other woman, and all I wanted at that moment, just like Hannah, was for my husband to sleep with me. So the women at the conference prayed with me for that. They prayed my husband would come home that night and lie down with me as his wife. That night, after I got home and long after I had gone to bed, I heard a knock at the door. It was Kelly! He said he had gotten up from the other lady's bed and felt the overwhelming urge to come over to me and be with his own wife! So he slept in his clothes on top of the covers but he was THERE! Neither of us can deny that miraculous evening and know it was the Holy Spirit moving! Even though we had several other miracles over the next couple of years, Kelly still went ahead with the divorce. He didn't attend the first court date but he got his worldly divorce on January 13, 2020. I stayed home and prayed with our rings on my Bible. Kelly told me that day that he felt that everything had gone wrong and he asked me to please keep our wedding rings. I did, right there, in my Bible. Less than a year later, and I am sure because of overwhelming movement by the Holy Spirit, Kelly came home and this time, he never left. We were remarried on October 9th, 2021, in a small and fun ceremony. We started building the home we had always dreamed of and completed it in 2023. Kelly knows I am passionate about saving more marriages, and he knows and approves of me sharing our testimony! I have learned so much about the heart of God throughout my journey - how to better listen to His voice, notice how He was speaking and showing me things that helped me make better decisions during my stand. I learned to trust God and draw near to Him when things made little sense in my world and that He was always in control. That fact alone was the most comforting and empowering part of my whole stand. God never left me and even when I made mistakes, He reminded me HE IS GOD and was much more powerful than my shortcomings. I prayed for God to change my husband but He started by transforming me and I am grateful. By reshaping me, God has reignited my marriage and I am eternally thankful that He never gave up on me.
