Just as an explanatory tangent, when I married the first time (back in the Dark Ages), I married a widower with a toddler son. That's child number one.
For whatever reason, I was told I could never have any children but through modern, at the time, fertility advances, I did have three of my own. And, now there's four.
Not terribly long after my youngest was born, my father died and left my 4 siblings, none of whom our mother wanted. Fortunately, for them, I had the desire and means to "adopt" three of them. The oldest was about to become of age, within months, so no issue. Now we're up to 7, but I made arrangements for the next oldest to live with a close family friend to enable him to complete his high school years without interruption and the chaos of a new environment, losing old friends, etc.
So, in a way, down to 6. Then, through all this and it was going on before my siblings came on the scene, Mr. Wonderful turned out to be not so wonderful and he split. Had nothing to do with the family situation. Questionable things at work (sex trafficking, drugs, money issues), etc. The list was long and he was quite skilled at keeping everything hidden. Nice kettle of fish, yes?
A couple of years pass and I meet Buck, of whom some of you have knowledge. He came with baggage, two sons. Same age, almost to the month, of two of my birth children. Like having two sets of twins. Their mother's idea of parenthood was less than stellar, so they became "ours" and now we have 8.
It was a wild ride sometimes but we were incredibly lucky in that, from the beginning, everyone got along and our "blended family" blended without any visible lines. To the extent that we'd take the children shopping, meet an acquaintance of either Buck or mine who would unknowingly comment that "x" boy looked so much like his mother (me). Not mine, but we just smiled and accepted the compliment.
All of those events were more than an education. I had less than 7 years with my first husband, but I had a fabulous 32 with Buck. His shoulders were wide and strong. They had to be with the dynamic family we'd created.
Now we return to the program already in progress.
