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Monday, August 30, 2010

I dreamed a dream....

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who dreamed of what it would be like to grow up and marry her prince charming. She dreamed of the beautiful wedding dress, the delicious wedding cake, the tear filled eyes of her joyous guests and her most handsome groom. Yes, the little girl would practice her "I do's" in the mirror with her crisp white pillow case veil on, hardly able to wait for her happily ever after to begin.
Fast forward thirty years and you will find me, a 37 year old recently re-married mom of one surly teenage son of my own and three stepchildren. I can honestly say I have finally found my prince charming. Brian is smart, sweet, funny, caring, devoted, passionate, and the best friend I have ever had. Sounds perfect, right? Well, my mother always believed in the saying, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.". Hmmm.... she may have been on to something.
The older we get, the more baggage we collect along the road of life and Brian and I both brought our fair share of Samsonite into this marriage. As I mentioned, I have a son from my first marriage. Alex is sixteen, tall, handsome, smart with a great sense of humor. I have never met a kid so into sports, past and present, as Alex.  He is my pride and joy. I also bring one ex-husband to our new marriage. Now, you might not think that an ex is something that you bring into your new marriage, but trust me, the ex's are active characters in our cast of foolishness.
Brian's carry on luggage includes his three children. His oldest son, also named Alex, is also sixteen. He too is tall, handsome, smart and one of the hardest working teenagers I have ever met.  Alex recently came out to us about his sexuality, though honestly, we already knew. His father and I were fine with it but his mother was another story entirely.
Jessica is Brian's daughter. She is fourteen, insanely smart, beautiful, funny and the social butterfly of the family. She is the dancer in the family and would probably spend every waking minute with her friends dancing if we allowed her to.
Then there is Nicholas. Oh, what to say about Nicholas. He is thirteen, adorable, super smart and quite the artist. He is unbelievably creative and has written several really impressive stories over the years. He has also been fighting brain cancer since he was eleven. Shortly after his twelfth birthday, he had surgery to remove a baseball sized tumor from his brain. Between the surgery and the stroke he had during it, Nick has had some difficulty with the executive functioning part of his brain which can make for some interesting days and some interesting dynamics between Nick and the other kids, all of whom live with us full time.
Along with the kids, Brian also brings his ex-wife, Dawn, to our marriage. At the risk of sounding like the stereotypical second wife, this woman is the biggest pain in the behind I have ever known. She is the most intrusive, meddlesome, destructive force I have encountered yet in my nearly 40 years on this earth. We are talking the Hurricane Katrina of ex-wives. Her path of destruction is not aimed directly at Brian or me, mind you. We are simply the American Red Cross in this parenting natural disaster. If Dawn were Hurricane Katrina, her children are most certainly the French Quarter of New Orleans.