My husband, Robbie, and I were helping host a stepfamily event for our church’s surrounding area. One Sunday, a man in the congregation approached me. He said, “Why have a separate event for blended families? Why can’t they just be ‘family’?” His question...
When my husband, David, died in a terrible car accident in 2010, I grew close to my mother-in-law, Joy, who shared my grief, not only for her son, but for her own husband, who had died 30 years prior. Our stories mirrored each other—both widowed in our 30s,...
My husband, Robbie, gathered his army supplies and kissed his mother goodbye. He didn’t know it was their last. While he fought in Iraq, she died from heart complications. A year later, ready to grieve, Robbie discovered his father’s house empty of her belongings. To...
My five-year-old son looked at me in defiance. Ben did not like his new stepdad ruining his life—watching his TV, making rules in his house. When I didn’t jump to appease my little boy’s angst, he roared, “You love him more than you love me!” My heart gasped. At...
It was a sunny Fourth of July weekend. Red roses and navy ribbons were the ideal backdrop for my fiancé, Robbie, and me to join in matrimony. With Robbie in his dress blues and me in my white ball gown wedding dress, we looked like royalty. It was a day of...
