We spent about $6,000 on marriage counseling personally before getting into the MB program, and what we did was not attend the MB weekend but get the program with the accountability portion. If you look on the Web site or in the newsletter, that is an option. Then you don't need to pay to get to the seminar or get babysitting if you have children. That is at a reduced rate from the MBW. I would not recommend it, however, because we had trouble with some basic concepts because we hadn't attended the seminar. Six months later, after getting the material, we are still on our first lesson (conversation) where we work until we meet the need. However, we had a false start with meeting the need for affection, and while we aren't on that lesson now, my H is doing a good job of meeting it. Also, the house is much calmer, and in the last four days there has been no conflict. This is a great improvement for us -- my H broke my arm when we were arguing about this woman (before D-day), and I ended up with a harassment order from her.
That said, I do believe that Harley has a fund for people to attend, a fund that is paid for by people who want others to be able to attend. You might want to ask by sending an e-mail to marriagebuilders.
Yesterday, all day, I took care of three children ages 8, 5, and 3 (similar ages to our 3 younger children; the 5 year old attended pre-school with my 5 year old, and the 8 year old is in the same grade at the same school as my 8 year old) while their mother filed for divorce because the husband left and closed down her access to the checking account. Our marriage exploded, too, but we have both been willing to work on our relationship, and there is now a glimmer of hope that we can pull through this and be both better spouses and better parents.
Please do pursue this. I see what the program accomplishes. The program doesn't help us to make a bad marriage tolerable. The program is helping us to make a bad marriage great. Next week, we are going on our first-ever family vacation that wasn't visiting relatives.
Cherished
<small>[ August 12, 2004, 08:11 AM: Message edited by: Cherished ]</small>
