Blended Family

This past week I've been working on some "blended family" projects (by the end of the month, I'll be able to show you what one of the projects is. I'm really excited about it).

Even though divorce and remarriage is very common now, it wasn't the norm when I was a child. My parents were divorced for five years before I had a friend whose parents were also divorced (that friend is now my sister-in-law so we are part of the same blended family). Even as an adult, most of my friends come from "intact" families, so as common as divorce may be, a lot of my generation is experiencing it for the first time.

Being a part of any family has its ups and downs, but the dynamics of blended families can be pretty complicated. "High drama" might be a good way to describe it, but "never boring" might be a kinder way of putting it.

As I've been working on my blended family project, I've been thinking about some of the adventures of being part of a blended family:

• If you've ever used the introduction, "This is my brother Kyle, and this is my other brother Kyle,"... you might come from a blended family

• If you have nieces named Haley, Haylie, and Hailey... you might come from a blended family. 

• If you are the oldest child, the middle child, and the second-to-youngest child all at once... you might come from a blended family. 

• If you have 51 nieces and nephews, and some of your siblings haven't even started having kids yet... you might come from a blended family.

• If you didn't know your nephew existed until he was three... you might come from a blended family.

• If you've ever had to draw a diagram of your family to use as a visual aid during an anecdote... you might come from a blended family. 

• If your friends think you're delusional because one time you said you have no sisters and another time you said you have 7 sisters... you might come from a blended family. 

• If you host a "grandparents only" birthday party and 26 people show up... you might come from a blended family.  

• If you write a blog post about your family, and it's outdated by the end of the day... you might come from a blended family.

For those who don't know, Scotty and I both come from very large, blended families, so we get to experience the "never boring" aspect from every side. We have 8 parents, and together we have 21 siblings (that's our siblings, half-siblings, and step siblings* - no spouses. In addition to that, Scotty has two family members who were raised as his siblings but aren't biologically nor legally related to him, so depending on how you count, we have 23 siblings) (can you understand the need for diagrams?)

*In case you don't know the blended family vernacular, half-siblings share one parent (Scotty and I each have one half-sibling. Half-siblings are biological) and step-siblings are by marriage (i.e. not biological)