Last night she signed off a message to me by saying she missed me. She has never said this before, so this is hopefully a good sign. Keep the prayers coming. Thank you.

Wow, so many new responses! I was trying to keep up with thanking you all individually in one form or another, but I don't think I can keep up! Thank you all so much for your prayers. I am touched. :~) By the way, sorry about being somewhat anonymous. Only 2 people that I know of in B's life know *I* am still in her life, and she doesn't want to face awkward questions about that. Although I wish it were otherwise, that is how she wants it for now, and I'm not one to go against her wishes. It's okay if anyone I know sees this, or she sees it herself, but it could cause some problems for her if someone she knew saw it, hence not saying too much about our names, etc. I'm sorry about that, but hope you all understand. Thank you again so much for your prayers. Will keep you updated.

There is nothing to update at the moment as such (only 1 message since last update, no phone calls), but I'll respond to some things mentioned below.

As before, I am limited in what I can say here, for the sake of her privacy, but I'll try to make things a little clearer for those who are unsure. :-)

B doesn't tell me anything about the guy she's with, and hasn't for a long time, but that doesn't mean I can't tell what's going on... and she does talk to others about him, and these others don't have any higher opinion of him than I do. Remember they know more about it than me, since she still talks to THEM about him, and they are just as against her being with him as I am, if not more so! What I, and others, want the most is, is for B to be happy, and she certainly isn't with this guy. If she could be with me, that would be ideal, :-) but ultimately I want her to be happy, I want her to be with someone who treats her RIGHT, and he doesn't! (I titled this prayer request "need healed relationship" because even if we don't get back together, I'd still like for things to be better between us than they have been - reconciliation would be ideal though :-) ).
The two of them broke up about 8 times, but that was before I lost count! As I said, he promises to change, but never does, yet she still lets herself get suckered back into believing he will. He charms her back into his life, and then just treats her as bad as always. She pretty much gets treated like a slave (having to do all the cooking and cleaning even though they BOTH work, etc.). The 2 times we broke up was nothing to do with how I treated her, but with issues she had herself (as I said, she admitted to being scared, she said she believed I deserved better than her, etc. - she doesn't see that, to me, there IS no-one better than her!). I really can't say anything more about it without feeling like I'm betraying her privacy, :-( I just hope people can trust that things are as bad as I have said, that the issues can be reconciled if she moves forward, gets out of the rut she's in.
I think I'll post separately a generic prayer for those who have suffered from abuse - the act itself as well as the after-effects - though I run the risk of people reading things into what I've written. ;-)

As I said, the root cause of her distress is her emotional scars and mental issues arising out of the years of abuse. If this could be healed (and it can, once she opens herself up to that possibility, instead of staying on the treadmill of self-fulfilling negative expectations), then all else would then fall into place. Myself and others believe this will happen ONE day, we just pray it is sooner rather than later so that she can save herself from all this heartache in the mean-time (which she still believes she deserves, :~( even though nothing could be further from the truth!).

I'll take this opportunity to thank you all again for your prayers - it means so much to me to have so much support! :~)

Sorry about the formatting above - I copied from somewhere else I'd written it into here, and the paragraphs got lost in the translation. :-(

Had a message saying sorry for not much contact, and she does want to see me soon. Hasn't always happened in the past, so hopefully this will actually happen and I will see her soon.

Wow, so many new responses again. There will be no updates for a few days, as the site doesn't work properly on my home computer (can't add comments or updates as the "submit" button doesn't appear :-( ), but if anyone wants to contact me directly they can do so via ausguy@cyberspace.org. Thank you again all.

Well, a few days ago it was almost like old times again. She rang me several times, including a video call, and we talked for more than an hour all up. She also sent me some pictures. The only thing missing was seeing her in person. Since then the contact has been limited again, but as I said, that one day was almost like it used to be between us. I see it as like when an engine hasn't run in a long time and you're trying to start it - initially it just sparks once but doesn't start. After a while you might get a few sparks but then it floods, then as the oil gets through the engine and the flooding has drained it finally starts kicking over after one really good spark. I'm looking at the other day as like one of the first sparks that doesn't get the engine kicking over, but you know it can come with some patience and perserverence (the battery isn't dead, the engine has just been idle a long time and needs to be coaxed back to life). She's still with this other guy, but maybe she's finally close to leaving him now - things were certainly better between us. It'd be nice to spend Xmas with her this year, so here's hoping that engine starts kicking over soon. ;-) Thank you all.

Been away from the site for a little while with various issues, but you're all still in my thoughts and prayers. Unfortunately in this case it's NOT a case of "no news is good news" - I would definitely come back here ASAP to update if things had got better, but they've got worse again. A few weeks ago B and I had a LOT of contact, but since then it fell off again, and I've now not heard from her at all in 2 weeks, not even an SMS (prior to that the longest we'd ever gone without contact was a week).
Also, recently she had a dream she didn't understand which she posted about. Someone who responded had an intepretation which was a PERFECT description of the way in which the guy she's with is abusing her (limiting her contact with others, etc.) even though this person didn't even know him(!) - she was just saying what she thought the dream meant - and yet when B replied to her repsonse she said it didn't sound like anyone she knew in her life! Very disappointing that the Denial about her situation is so strong that she can't see the obvious. :-(
Thank you to everyone who is still praying for this situation. It means so much to me.

I haven't been around here for a little bit, but you're all still in my thoughts and prayers. After not seeing B at all in 11 months, I've now seen her 3 times in the last 2 weeks. :-) Perhaps soon I can tick the "prayer answered" box? Well, I think it's still a little way off, but obviously things have improved recently, and hopefully will continue to improve. By the way, her health is still very poor, so she still needs prayers for that. Thank you all.