Stephen clasps Cindy's hand within his, looking lovingly into her eyes,  "I don't know where to begin …I've missed you so much. I wanted to  wait until we were alone to tell you this.  I know we had a lot of struggles before I disappeared, but I want you to know that I had never stopped loving you in my heart.  I definitely decreased my ability to show it, but I never stopped loving you.  I'd wanted to change what we had together, and in trying to improve it, I actually made it worse.  I should have just prayed about the things that bothered me so much.  I don't know what I thought I was trying to do.  Did I think I could change things?  I see now that God did it without my help.  I've painfully realized the error of  my ways.  I've had seventeen years to think about it.  That's a lot of years to live in regret."                                                                                                                             

   Cindy attempts to confess through her tears, "I've also had seventeen years to live out my regrets.  But I want you to know that I felt all the prayers.  I didn't know many of them were from you ---because I didn't know you were even alive.  But now that I know you were there every day, praying for me, I want you to know that it wasn't easy to change.  I could have easily gone more in the direction that I had already been going."   

       There are more tears than words.  There is much, much more to be said, but hopefully the separation is behind them, and now they can be together in a way they weren't …even when they were together.