oompa, It did take me 8 years to wake up. My hubby was actually on the road for most of that, usually about 300 days/year. I was raised to be an elder's wife, trained I should say. When my husband left I had the martyr attitude, poor me for doing it all by myself. So most of the time I was listening to stories from the road, praying he would come back. He has since come off the road and we had our 3rd child 2 years ago. I'm done with having kids, I wanted a tubal ligation. Then I was told that sometime in the last 3 years or so it was written surgical sterilization is a no-no, unless your life would be at risk. That pissed me off, and set me down my path of research.( I should say, having him on the road made me stronger and able to think for myself, I had 2 kids to raise). We had so MANY no-no's, what were the Biblical basis for them? The whole mess with the blood issue cinched it for me, as I had nearly died from refusing blood. That's a whole other thread, tho'.
I feel like you do, oompa, about my mom, I want to scream for her to leave. My hubby is very patient (obviously). I would tell him that I was praying and I was not feeling like I had an answer. He just told me to keep praying, I would know. And amazingly, I did. My mom-in-law saw our Halloween decorations and asked to see copies of the research I had found, she has been having doubts too. You want to talk patient? My father-in-law has been married to her 40 something years, at least 20 with her as a Witness. He left around the 70's. My mom is alone, she divorced Dad in 1994, and he died in 1996. My brother was never baptized, my sister left at the same time I did, for different reasons. I try to bring the subject up to Mom, she changes it. She's not ready yet, but I'm praying!
Now, brokenhearted. Stay and read the posts. You won't find encouragement to be a Witless here. But this is a group of loving, caring people who don't mince words. I have found wonderful support in them. Stay a while and have a cup of coffee!
momzcrazy