We were high school sweethearts destined to be together forever. He set off for the Army and I set off for college. We parted ways for four long years, always trying to keep our relationship close throughout. Despite our best efforts, there was the occasional misstep that took our relationship into dangerous territory during these years apart as we both took the opportunity to explore other “interests.” Rest assured, that when we were able to reconnect, we did so with renewed passion and excitement. We married in 2012, got pregnant on the honeymoon and had our first son in June 2013. Our daughter was born in September 2014 and our second son, who was not exactly planned, was born in January 2016.
Jim and I had a good marriage and a wonderful family life with three wonderful, happy, healthy children. There was, however, a nagging question from Jim overshadowing the birth of our second son. You see, during the summer of 2015 I reconnected with some college friends for a weekend getaway in the mountains and we had a great mini-reunion. Old roommates, friends (including a past fling) were all there and we all had a great time. I shared everything about the weekend with Jim – including who was there. Shortly after that weekend, I found out I was pregnant and shared the exciting and unexpected news with Jim.
A year after our second son was born, the questions started floating. Our first two children had beautiful blonde hair, but our third 
child’s hair remained darker brown – even after a year. Jim would jokingly say that he was not the father of our third son – pointing out how he looked nothing like him. He was right. Our son looked much more like my side of the family. One night, my husband confided in me that he really was wondering if our third child was really his. He confessed that he had wondered if I had another “fling” during that summer reunion in 2015. He didn’t want to think that because he loved and trusted me so much and I had never given him reason not to trust me. Sure, we both experimented during our four years apart, but we came right back together perfectly and we were completely open about everything. The thought just kept creeping back into his head and he couldn’t shake it. At first I was hurt and kind of angry that he would even think for a moment that I would ever cheat on him, but then I realized that he had been struggling with this for quite some time and it was starting to effect our marriage.
That’s when I took action. I knew the truth and had nothing to worry about, but I had to put his concerns to rest – for his sake and for the sake of our marriage. I called and scheduled a DNA paternity test to be conducted the next day. I asked the person at the clinic how long the results took and they said that we would have the results in 3-5 business days. They explained the testing process to me and answered all of my questions.
On the third day following the testing, we received the official results from the laboratory. Jim took one look at the results, laughed, shook his head, kissed me and apologized for letting those crazy ideas get into his head. Then he proudly announced that he knew it all along – after all, they both had brown eyes…
Sure, I could have gotten mad, defensive and argued my case, but there would have always been lingering unanswered questions. Taking that DNA paternity test was the best investment in my marriage that I could have ever made.