Free Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage by Kody Brown, Meri Brown, Janelle Brown, Christine Brown, Robyn Brown

Montana. It was a tense trip, and I have to admit that I wasn’t my most cheerful self. Christine and I had gone from being buddies to being married. We hadn’t had time to get used to each other and I hadn’t prepared myself for the transition of adding a new wife to my family.
     
Christine
    I was shaken when Kody showed up at our wedding with that look on his face. He was morose. I was even more devastated when I learned that he hadn’t planned a honeymoon. I was hoping that we’d finally have a romantic getaway, something special that told me how thrilled he was to have me in his family. I was young and naive. I had no idea how to tell Kody what I wanted from him.
    On our honeymoon—a drive through the sticks of Montana—I was struck by the realization that I didn’t know Kody very well. Once we got into the car, he still had the faraway look on his face that I’d seen at our wedding. He seemed distant and unreachable. I began to understand that he felt overwhelmed. However, I didn’t know how to talk to him about what he was feeling. I had no idea how to reach out to him. I just sat there in silence.
    Watching him drive with that look on his face made me unbearably sad. I realized that I had no idea how to express my feeling with him or ask him to share his with me. I never doubtedthat Kody was the man of my dreams, but I began to worry that I’d married him too soon.
    Until our honeymoon, I had thought he was a fun-loving guy, but that was the extent of it. Now there was this distant, grumpy man at my side, burdened by something I couldn’t understand. And I worried that I might be the source of his anxiety. Like many young women, I had idealized marriage. I had this silly notion that the moment you got married, your problems ended. I was fixated on the idea of happily ever after. I thought marriage, especially plural marriage, would be absolute bliss. What could be better than being blessed with a husband and sisters in one fell swoop?
    I didn’t understand that marriage is something you must work on. I didn’t know that true love isn’t instantaneous but something that develops over time. While Kody and I did love each other, it took us about a year from the day we married to fall completely head over heels for each other. It would be a hard year, but well worth the wait.

Chapter Four
ROBYN AND KODY

     
Robyn
    I was raised in a polygamous family in southern Utah. My mother was my father’s second wife. They had a truly wonderful marriage—a honeymoon experience that lasted for years and years. Their relationship was sweet, loving, and respectful. They put their family and their happiness in front of any petty grievance that might crop up. I was determined not to marry unless I could find the same kind of relationship.
    I grew up knowing that accepting the doctrine of plural marriage was entirely up to me. It was something I considered deeply and carefully. I prayed and contemplated until I received a testimony—which is to say, until I knew without question—that I was going to live the principle of plural marriage.
    I got married at twenty-one to a fellow member of my faith. He was from a well-regarded family in our community. Despite the fact that my then-husband’s family members were spiritual leaders, our marriage was not solid. We struggled right from the start.
    I was the first wife, but shortly after my son was born, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to have sister wives. Unfortunately,my marriage didn’t last long enough to bring a second wife into our family.
    I tried my hardest to make the marriage work, both for our own sake and for the sake of the three children my ex-husband and I had together. But what started off as unstable disintegrated into something destructive. After seven and a half years of marriage, we separated. A year and a half later, we were divorced.
    Both my marriage and its collapse were incredibly difficult for me. I suffered a lot of pain and hardship. I had