Marriage, Heartache, Divorce & Reconciliation

In October 1999, Nick and Kristine were joined in marriage, promising to share their lives together, allowing that only death would separate them.

The years that followed were filled with excitement as they purchased their first home; with unspeakable joy as they shared in the miracles of pregnancy and birth, with their son, Travis, in 2001 and their daughter Lydia in 2003.

The years were also filled with challenges and struggles, as Nicholas and Kristin both stumbled along while growing in their understanding of what was vital to keep a marriage alive, and what was required of them as parents. They struggled with striving to merge two separate lives into one; with attempting to become an accepted member of one another’s family and circle of friends; with managing finances at times when money was scarce, and with growing alongside each other in maturity and understanding.

Both were hardworking, polite, maturing individuals, endeavoring to live a fulfilling, successful and joy-filled life; and to raise their two children up, to do the same.

On the surface, their life as a family appeared quite ordinary.

But below the surface, underneath the well-polished veneer, something tragic was beginning to be unveiled.

The values, expectations, and morals embraced by both, were drawn from a very personalized blending of human wisdom, philosophy, personal experience, which included random notions about God; thoughts and attitudes that have been weaved throughout human thought in all of history, neatly molded to fit into their personal life, with relative comfort and ease.

However, these various beliefs and forms of religion consistently crumbled at the slightest of life’s “breezes”, terribly lacking in genuine substance, leaving Nicholas and Kristine the task of grappling for something else to hold on to.

It was the sudden death of Kristin’s father, Richard Lee Grotte, on Thanksgiving Day 2003 that ignited the deadly blow to their weak and ever-shifting philosophical/religious foundation.

Without a solid, strong, and true foundation to support them during this tragedy (and the many other trials that had wounded their intimacy), their personal lives, as well as their marriage fell to its death.

After six years of marriage, Nicholas and Kristin pursued and obtained a divorce.

After 2 years of separation and divorce, bitterness and heartache, God began to work in Kristin's heart. By a clarity and wide-eyed realism that God enabled in her grief, she began to understand that her heart's greatest need, above any other, was reconciliation with her Creator.

What she had to come to understand for herself was that fellowship with and guidance from God was impossible, because of her sin; her constant disobedience to Him; she was at war with her Creator; a fate shared by all. But also, that God intervened through His beloved Son, Jesus, by sending Him to us, to live a perfect life, thereby earning the Father’s favor for us; gave himself over to death on the cross, thereby satisfying the wrath of God on our behalf; and, had risen from the grave after His sacrificial death, thereby giving those who would trust alone on His final and complete sacrifice for forgiveness, eternal life. Jesus Christ lived, died and was resurrected to reconcile us [to end the war] to our Father.

It was in June 2006 that Kristin heard this gospel and responded by surrendering her life to Christ.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

God graciously saw fit to not only save the soul of Kristin, but proceeded to work in and through her circumstances, to bring about a reconciliation of hers and Nick's broken family.

Their remarriage to each other in May 2007 was only the beginning of a difficult journey towards healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. God was ever faithful to sustain Kristin in her calling to be a Christian wife, as prone as she was to wander from the God she loved and retreat behind the sails of her pain and frustration. In the 2 years following their second wedding to one another, God enabled healing and growth that neither imagined possible.

And then...

Almost three years and countless prayers later, Nick responded to the gospel of Jesus, trusting solely on Christ's perfect life and sacrifice to grant Him peace with God, by giving His life to Christ. He was baptized into the church in October 2009!

Our hearts are speechless as we humbly present our restored family, as a beautiful picture of God’s own ministry of reconciliation to sinners, through His Son, our King, our risen Savior, Christ Jesus.

May His sweet grace, His power, His great love and His mercy, shine brightly and be proclaimed loudly, to a world of broken hearts and broken homes, through this testimony.

To Him be all praise! To Him be all glory!