Very nice article. I don't have kids, but I have a similar experience of finding through sacrifice, deep fulfilment. My fiance is incarcerated for a crime he committed while in a delusional state (which I know is true since I was a witness). It's been four years since that terrible day. I haven't touched him since then, and it's likely to be a few more years before I can. But I have known to the depths of my soul that the *right thing to do* would be to continue to be there for him, to love him, to help him, to stay committed to our relationship even if we're not legally married yet, when I said yes to his proposal before The Tragedy I was already making a vow in my heart to love him for better or worse.

So I have committed, I talk on the phone to him every day for an hour or more, we write letters, video chat... Last year during COVID he was unable to use the phone for five months due to prison lockdown. During that time I wrote to him every day.

You might call this "sacrifice", but it's not sacrifice in a bad way. I am not miserable. I am not lacking in my life. Instead this situation has taught me a great deal, on a spiritual and personal level. By doing what I know to be "the right thing" I have been deeply rewarded on all levels of life. My life is full of meaning and certainty that I am a good person, and that when the going gets tough, I do not break, I not only endure but thrive.

(Not saying staying with one's incarcerated partner is the right decision for everyone but it was the right decision for ME in my particular relationship, with my particular partner, in his particular circumstance. People shouldn't stay with bad people or abusive people, that is emphatically NOT the case with me though).