Kansas House Bill 2667 yesterday was amended to include covenant marriage.   Divorce from a Kansas covenant marriage would be permissible only for “a complete and total breach of the marital covenant commitment.”  Couples desiring a covenant marriage would be required to obtain counseling prior to stating their commitment.

The House Bill originally was intended as a non-substantive technical reorganization of the Domestic Relations statutes in Kansas.  Before yesterday, substantive amendments were deliberately omitted from the bill.  The House Judiciary Committee was intending first to reorganize the statutes in a coherent, accessible form.  Substantive changes were supposed to have been raised later.

Thirty five years.  That’s an awfully long time to be married before a divorce.

I just finished mediating the divorce of a couple who have been married thirty five years.  Everything has changed:  their financial hopes, their retirement, even their living arrangements for the next phase of their lives.  At this point, the assumptions on which they organized their expectations are changing after it is too late to adjust for them.

At least they mediated instead of litigating.  In our mediation, they divided all of their assets and debts.  They planned for their retirements.  They divided their 401k’s and their pension plans.

They accomplished all this without going to court.  Now that they have settled all their issues, I will file their divorce for approval with the court.

Divorce is never easy, but at least they accorded each other the dignity of avoiding court.  After all, it’s the least they could do after thirty five years of marriage.