Stephanie loves to take complex ideas and make them clear and doable. Among other things, Stephanie has been an associate pastor, biochemist, and oil-change technician. She’s a wife to Michael, mom to Isaac and Matthew, and stepmom to Caleb and Ben, so her house is never very clean.
“Will you always be my stepmom?” Down went the clean laundry I was busy folding. I looked up. My stepson was watching me intently. It was just the two of us, in a rare bit of quiet. I searched for an answer.
It took me four years to appreciate the fact that my family is sprawling and complicated. As I learned to accept my circumstances and open my heart, I started to become the stepmother I hoped I could be.
When marriage makes a stepfamily, the good tends to lie buried way down deep. It took me nearly five years to embrace the good that God wanted me to see and to appreciate.