We faded for awhile, but at first it wasn't with the eventual goal to leave permanently. We just simply got TIRED. Tired of 3 meetings a week when we both worked our butts off; tired of field service, which was the biggest waste of time EVER. Tired of nothing being good enough, of the rules, regulations, 'do this', 'don't do that', and so on. I think Little Drummer Boy had more reservations about beliefs and things than I did early on. (He can partly thank the History channel and Discovery channel for enlightening him about how backwards the WT's thinking is.)
So one day around Feb. or March '06, LDB and I were having a casual conversation about our feelings about the society. It turned into a 4 hour discussion which pretty much ended in our joint decision to DA. But we had to wait a little while until LDB could quit his cleaning job, because it was under the contract of an elder. So from Feb. until September, we knew we were going to DA, but we couldn't yet. It was kind of torturous, because we had already DA'd in our minds, but we couldn't officially DA. The more we stayed away, the more the elders would pester us. Every blasted weekend, we'd hear the sounds of a minivan pulling into our driveway, then a gentle tap on the door. At first, we'd answer and talk to them, but we never let them come in. They weren't invited to begin with, so they didn't need to be let in. So we'd stand outside in the hot sun or in the rain.
Eventually, we began to tire of their harrassment. The phone calls and univited visits were escalating. They were leaving books and mags in the door, open to titles like "Have You Left Jehovah?" (Yeah, real nice.) They were calling to ask if we would study with them to 'renew our love for the truth'. We quit answering the door and phone. I began to feel imprisoned. Finally, LDB was able to quit his cleaning job, and therefore cut the final tie we had with the borg. So, without further delay, we sent our DA letter by mail on Sept. 10, 2006. From that day on, it has been completely silent. No more visits, no more phone calls, no more looking over our shoulders. I'd DA again in a heartbeat if I had to do it again.
