Welcome to Life in the Blender!

According to recent figures, over 2,100 new blended families will form each and every day. In the fall of 2009, I officially became a statistic. I exited my ten year relationship with a debt I had not aticipated, three very young and confused boys (then 7, 5, and 2), and resolution to never fall in love again...and then I met him.

I had not been looking for love by any means, and certainly had not anticipated our connection. Nevertheless, we instantly bonded as we shared our our post-divorce scars, the love of our children (he also had two boys), and our mutual mastery in the art sarcasm. It was a whirlwind romance, and within a couple months we saw that dreaded pink plus sign (another boy, by the way). You can imagine our shock when we realized what this meant. I will be the first to admit we had absolutely no clue what we were doing. To make matters worse, we lived an hour apart, his ex was less than pleasant to deal with, and our prospective custody arrangments were still in the fine-tuning stages. Did I mention that we both have children with special needs? His older son is autistic, and my middle child has ADHD with Oppositional Defiance Disorder.

There was a lot we didn't know going into this, but we did know this for sure: we love eachother, and we love our children. So, we took a deep breath, plugged our noses, and jumped in.

Now, we step parents have all heard them say, "You knew what you were getting yourself into when you got together..." They could not be more wrong. There is no way any of us could have anticipated the challenges we would face on a daily basis. We could never know the fear, exhaustion, frustration, love or joy. Whether we battle with sharing finances, ex-related drama, or bonding with our step children, there are no simple answers. The only thing we know, without a doubt, is that our bond with each other, as a couple, is the glue that holds our families together.

With that in mind, I created Life in the Blender. It is my hope that I can share with you what I have learned, as well as learn from others who, like me, are still learning to swim in the uncharted waters of blended family life. With enough support we can all survive...together.