![\"Family](\"https:\/\/newleafdesigns.biz\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Stepparents-1966-Bush-Gardens.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAs an adult, looking back, I think about what it had to be like for her. She married a man with four children and instantly became responsible to parent them. If that happened today, you could read all kinds of advice on being a stepparent (not necessarily good advice, but advice non-the-less). But back then, I don\u2019t think they had a lot of advice for how to instantly become a parent to four children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I\u2019d like her to know today, on her birthday, is how much I love her and count on her. I would like her to know how I remember waking up from nightmares and she\u2019d be there. How we\u2019d go sit at the far end of the house, away from the bedrooms so we wouldn\u2019t wake anyone, and she would listen to my dreams and offer comfort. Then we would talk, and she\u2019d tell me stories or even play a game with me. Then I\u2019d go back to bed and sleep comforted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, I remember her sleeping on the floor next to me, as I slept on the couch after the suicide of a loved one. When I\u2019d wake up in the night, she\u2019d be right there, and we\u2019d talk, and she\u2019d comfort me, and I\u2019d go back to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember sitting in Howard Johnson\u2019s, drinking coffee and sharing stories of our faith, our life. I remember the things she taught me as a child, like how to sweep an entrance way, how to clean, and especially the times she would hold me on her lap and patiently teach my how to spell. I was a terrible speller. She made flash cards and would drill me. I remember not being able to spell beautiful and she said when you have a word like that just say it in your head the way it\u2019s spelled, be-a-u-tiful. Amazing the things that stick in your mind as special – I still spell beautiful that way and it makes me think of her and what a beautiful, special person she has been to me throughout my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So mom, I want you to know, where I use the distinguishing phrase stepmom for you, it is a name of honor. You came into a home with four children (eventually 5 after you adopted another child) and chose to love us, and have continued to love us unconditionally, in our strengths and in our weaknesses, in our successes and in our failures and on this, your birthday, I want to say a heartfelt thank you. I love you.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For my stepmom\u2019s birthday I thought it would be good to write a blog about unsung heroes – stepparents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"For my stepmom\u2019s birthday I thought it would be good to write a blog about unsung heroes - stepparents.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[130,131],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","tag-family","tag-step-families"],"yoast_head":"\n