by Maria Rogers

Created on: September 26, 2009

Blended families could be a nightmare or a God send. In my case, it was the latter. My stepchildren were and still are wonderful children. I am the very proud grandmother of eight grandchildren, and five of them are from my stepchildren.

I was the second wife of a man with two very small children. Going into the relationship I knew that I would be a stepparent if I decided to marry him. That was a big decision for me because I wasn't sure if I had wanted to start out a marriage with children already in the mix. I went ahead and decided to take the chance on this man and his children, and was very glad that I did. They are the loves of my life, along with the children that he and I had together.

To start off, the children were twenty-two months (male) and eight months (female). They were your typical babies and very sweet; although not always. When we first started dating, my husband told me that he had recently divorced because his wife had given birth to their daughter and had just left him. She had walked away from her children and her life, never to look back. At first, I was shocked, then I was saddened by the situation. This of course, led to me to become more involved with him and his children. Naturally, I became very attached to them; even more so, when they started calling me mommy. a few years went by before he and I started having our own children. But, when we did, it only enhanced our family.

Years later, when the kids were pre-teens, the kids would fight and sometimes say that I loved my own children more than them. I knew this was their way of getting my re-assurance that I loved them too. I had decided to take a trip with all the children, (minus my husband) to show them that my love covered ALL of my children...not just the ones that I gave birth too. We went to Italy, to see my family and to show them all off to my relatives. We spent the entire summer there and during this time, our bond grew even stronger than I could ever have imagined. My children really were MY children. After that trip, there was never a doubt in their minds that I loved them all as though I had given birth to all five of them.

Life went on from then, pretty much the same as any other family. The kids grew older and each of them went to college, got married and finally had kids of their own. Life was complete.

When my daughter (i never once ever referred to them as step children) had her first child, it was the happiest day of my life. She had been the first of the children to have a baby. Then from there, the rest of the kids took turns having children...it was wonderful. By the time they finished, there were eight grandchildren to spoil rotten...which of course, we did.

The funny thing is, one of my grandchildren was brought into the family as part of a blended family. My youngest son married a very sweet girl whose husband had been killed in a car accident. She had a little girl who looked just like her. My son had been married to a girl before her and unfortunately, the marriage didn't work out. They had a little boy and he was about the same age as his current wife's child.

When my son had come to discuss the situation and what he wanted to do, I had asked him if he was sure about his decision. His reply to me was...I want a great family, just like the one I grew up with. That was all I had to hear. We gave them our blessing and they married a few months later.

All our children are happily married and eagerly looking to make their family bigger. We feel blessed that we have such a wonderful family. All it took was love to make that happen.

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