I have been married twice. Once in my early 20's for 6 years to my daughter Marysa's father whom I have been co-parenting with for 8 years peacefully. I am currently married to my best friend and his daughter Tanner from his first marriage whom I love very much. We have been married 5 1/2 years and I feel butterflies in my stomach still every time I see him.
Less than a week after we were married I received a call from Child Protective Services (CPS)that my four year old nephew was in need of a home. I looked across the breakfast table at my new husband and we decided to take him in. After four months of paperwork my nephew Joey joined our family. A year later after hundreds of calls with social workers, paper work out my our ear, family therapy, an in home case study and living painfully through a reunification plan with Joey's biological mother we were honored to become Joey's real parents.
A funny thing happened during our adoption process. We named him Sonny. Sonny was born just over two weeks after Joey's adoption. He came to use 5 weeks early at the low birth weight of eight pounds one ounce and 22 inches long. Silly me, Sonny was huge and I can't imagine how big he would have been at full term. Sonny spent a week in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) on breathing machines and intravenous fluids followed by a climbing bilirubin count and a 24 stay under fluorescent lights. Came home to grow quickly into the wildest child on the planet.
Shortly after Sonny's first birthday and rejoining the work force we were blessed with a new pregnancy. Just our luck he was a high risk pregnancy with a lot of morning sickness. Having the happiest, healthiest little guy you every met my very last baby ever Declan.
As a mother I want to share with you how easy and hard it is to have a big blended family of five kids. I want to share with your our hobbies, travels, achievements and challenges. I hope to encourage parents considering adoption to think older foster children though our love for our son Joey and to embrace and love your step child as your own. Just to keep an open mind to trying something new and not be afraid to fail. That's what a good parent does.
