Sorry to be long-winded, but it's hard for me to write a little about this without writing a lot. I had this story up on the MB board previously, before the Oct'09 server crash, but it got obliterated then:
The person who became my OW was someone whom my wife met when they started coming to our church. A few months after that, she started singing on the vocal team, where I was a singer. For 2 years, she never turned my head, and I wasn't even much impressed with her. She struck me as sort of whiny at times, at other times was an enthusiastic singer, but not a great voice -- too shrill for my tastes. Anyway, for 2 yrs, I never even gave her a second thought. I don't even recall the first time I met her & her husband. We interacted with them socially like, maybe twice the whole time.
Mind you, I'd been such a boy scout my entire life, I would've sworn up & down that I'D never get into anything like an affair. If you'd suggested the notion, I'd have laughed in your face.
One day late summer '08, she asked me if I'd sing a duet with her for a church service. We stayed late after rehearsal several times to practice it. She started asking me for advice on parenting, because her daughter had some social issues, whereas everyone always complimented my wife & me for how well-behaved our children were. To answer one of your questions,
yes, at that time, my intentions were pure, and I deemed our communications to be harmless.
As we talked about parenting occasionally over a few weeks, at one point I mentioned something to the effect that "it's important for parents to be on the same page" regarding their children, i.e., to agree together & present a united front on matters such as discipline, etc. And that's when she started letting on that she & her husband weren't always on the same page.
In retrospect, I know that
that should've been a big, friggin'
red flag for me right there. But I continued to meet with her to sing, continued to engage her in conversation, and we started meeting to sing alone (without the instrumentalists or other vocalists), and she started spilling more & more info, and I was being empathetic, an ear she could talk to...
...BUT I have to make clear that I didn't "fall" into this affair or get drawn out on the slippery slope. Rather, I realize that CHOSE to put my foot out there, because I had these unrealized emotional needs for conversation (which our conversations satisfied), for recreational companionship (which our working on music together satisfied), and I really liked the feeling that this person felt she NEEDED to talk to me, NEEDED me to vent to -- basically I had this huge need to feel needed!
And as re: my wife, she & I had always been so self-sufficient; my job had me away from home a lot, lousy hours, long commute, some travel; and her career was taking off, and she was devoted to our kids, and was getting satisfaction from teaching Sunday School, and although we always liked each other, almost never had major arguments or fights, it was like we were putting our M on auto-pilot at times. I sort of felt like she didn't really need me all that much. We really didn't express ourselves well to one another, never complained too much to one another, so we just assumed things were fine. But we weren't in touch with each others' needs. In my case, I don't think I was fully in touch with my own needs. It was complacency, it was laziness on my part, but it really had as much or more to do with our own marriage, I think, more so than it had to do with this other woman.
So I kept meeting with OW, and one weeknight, I was at a regularly-scheduled church building committee meeting, & when I came out to my car that night after the meeting, I found a little note on my windshield, tucked under the wiper. It was from OW. Nothing flirty in the language itself -- just "Just wanted to say Hi!" and a smiley-face drawn on it. But just the fact of her writing me such a note & being brazen enough to put it on my car with her name underneath was a dead giveaway. Right then it occurred to me that this person was likely wanting me for more than music & conversation. I knew that, if not sooner, that was the moment I should've run like hell, told her husband, told my wife, shut it down. Part of me KNEW this wasn't good. BUT the other part of me was LOVING the feeling of being pursued, which was something I hadn't really felt in maybe 2 decades. And I decided to enjoy the feling of being pursued for a little while longer, confident that I could keep myself under control. Boy, was I wrong! From that point on, I was in an EA, and it gradually became more & more physical for 5 weeks or so, and [censored] another 5 weeks or so after that. Boy, did I learn how many boundaries I was capable of violating.
You don't know how many times I've wished I could go back in time to the time before that night when I held that damned note in my hands.
Re: how I've changed, well, for one, we never returned to that church after D-day. I have NC with the OW. We did several of the EPs, such as changing my work phone #, giving each other our passwords, changing e-mails, going through an intermediary to request "no contact" from the OW & her H. My wife & I waded through "Surviving an Affair" with a very good, Christian-focused marriage counselor who was keen on saving marriages & who put us onto principles in that book. W & I spent lots of time together, assessing each others' & our own needs and actually communicating to one another about them, and we have made a major effort to increase our undivided attention to one another.
As regards interaction with OPs, I'm never allowed to develop and 1-on-1 friendships with women. And my wife & I are determined that, when we get into activities like volunteering in church, where there are members of the opposite sex involved, we will do it together, not the way it was before (with her off teaching Sunday School and me off separately doing music).
But I think that while the EPs have been important & necessary, the main thing has been the efforts W & I have made at focusing on our own relationship & communication & face-time. If only W & I had had the sort of relationship 14 months ago that we do now, then I like to think there's a much better chance that I'd have reacted better to the red-flags & stop-signs that I ran through on the road to my affair.
What expensive knowledge this has been for my wife & me.