How did your spouse react when you left/ became inactive/ were disfellowshipped/ were excommunicated?

My husband is a man of unwavering love, He loves me for who I am—completely and without condition. From the very beginning, he understood that I had never truly had the chance to discover myself. He gave me the space to grow, the freedom to be. As long as I’m being true to myself, as long as I’m smart and safe, he doesn’t need me to be anything other than who I am.

I often tell people that if God's love is even half of the love my husband has for me, we’ll all be incredibly lucky. He stands by me, not because I am perfect or because I fit into some ideal, but because he simply wants me to be me.

Many times I thought, that this would be the end of us. When I told him I was a pagan witch, I was certain he would walk away. I believed, deep in my heart, that one day he would wake up and say, ‘This isn’t what I signed up for,’ and that would be the end of it. I feared that as I shed the skin of who I was in the church—smoking, drinking, dressing in ways that would have once made him cringe—he would leave.

But no. Even as I went through my metamorphosis, even when I became someone new, he stayed. He stayed and he loved me, offering support, counsel, and unconditional love, without ever asking me to be anyone but the woman I’ve become.

proudxmo