Last week we shared the exciting news with Ana and Yoseph that our family is growing by one–we are having a baby in the spring!
As the news sunk in, there were LOTS of questions. I think the most heart-melting one came from Ana.
“So…what will we call the baby? It won’t be our stepbrother or stepsister, will it?” she asked uncertainly.
“No,” Tim and I answered in unison. “Just your brother or sister.”
Tim and I exchanged a look and a nod above her head. No discussion of half-siblings will be had. We will be full on brothers and/or sisters. Period.
But Yoseph also asked an interesting question as we began to wrap his mind around the idea that I would now be someone’s mommy and what that means for the mommy in his life.
“So wait,” he asked thoughtfully. “If Molly is the baby’s mommy, what will Mommy be? She won’t be the baby’s stepmom…will she just be the baby’s friend?”
“Yes,” Tim answered. “She will be the baby’s friend!”
It reminded me that there is still a lot of internal navigating that our kiddos do for their blended family situations. Just because I feel reasonably well-adapted most days doesn’t mean they always do and this was a good reminder. There’s always something more going on in those little brains and hearts than I can see.
Thank you, Lord, for the reminder to be sensitive and compassionate with these precious children with whom I share a life.
3 Comments
Heidi
I love that there are no “half” siblings in this family. One family unit, working together and loving each other– everyone belongs to each other! Congratulations!
Kristin Rentschler
My sisters all had slightly different parents than I did as we too were a blended family. Two of my sisters had their dad pass away and one of my sisters had her mom pass away. My parents met at church and began mixing two broken halves together and luckily for them all, I came along. 😉 Never though did my sisters ever consider each other half sisters and never was I told that we were all anything less than sisters and family.