MARRAIGE
The Pohlmans: Rekindled Love Under an Italian Sky
By Sheryl Fountain
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– On the outside Tim and Susan Pohlman had a perfect life
They’d been married for 18 years with two children. They led the typical American lifestyle.
"We were very social. We had a lot of friends. We went to church every weekend," Susan tells The 700 Club. Everything was in its place."
But on the inside, their marriage was in ruins.
"We were kinda had evolved into really two separate people living parallel lives under the same roof," Tim says.
"I had a roughly about 600 employees reporting to me. You’re climbing the corporate ladder, then a lot of times things suffer. In this case, my family suffered."
"Even though we tried to work things through, our communication styles were so different that we weren’t able to resolve anything," Susan says.
Susan was fed up and decided to leave. She says, "I was so filled with angst, because the thought of breaking up our family was unthinkable to me, but I couldn’t find a way out. I was so unhappy."
That night Tim asked Susan if she would go on a trip with him and his clients to Italy.
"I was like, that’s going to be my end point," Susan confesses. "I’m going to do this trip, enjoy it and then separate after that."
After a few days touring Italy, Tim and Susan had a day to themselves.
"While we were there, we started to just feel some sort of powerful and deep connection," she says.
While exploring the city, Tim had an idea that surprised them both – live in Italy.
"I’m thinking we’re not going to live here," she says. "Really inside I’m thinking I’m leaving you. We’re not moving anywhere together."
"I realize that my children are growing up very fast. I did have an awareness that my wife wasn’t happy," Tim says.
Susan continues, "We started to talk about it. We could do this if we wanted to. What’s holding us back? Our family is the most important thing. Maybe we don’t know what’s wrong with our relationship, but we knew that God wanted us here at this time. We for the first time totally surrendered, put our life in God’s Hands and said, 'All right, we’re going to do this.'"
Over the next 48 hours, they leased an apartment and Tim quit his job.
"I don’t think either one of us thought that this was going to be some magic pill," Susan says. "But what happened was we got over there and we did not know the languague. We did not know any customs. We didn’t know where anything was.
So what you find is that all of a sudden you’re on the same side of the fence again."
The Pohlman family spent the next year living in Genoa, Italy, and traveling Europe.
"Little by Little over time, you start to reconnect," Susan says. "You’re replacing all of your sad memories with all of these new vibrant, happy memories and realizing that we’re the same people that fell in love a long time ago."
The time together restored their marriage and their faith in God.
"For once now in my life, I made God a priority," Tim says, "but I also started to talk to Him in ways I never talked to Him before."
When they returned to the United States, they moved from Los Angeles to Scottsdale, Arizona.
Their marriage is now stronger than ever.
"We’re just going to work on it together, just like we always have," Susan says. "God’s plan will reveal itself."
Tim concurs, "Susan and I pray together now.
It’s a commitment; it’s a choice. It’s a conscious choice."
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