This is a new blog for me.  Over two and one-half years ago, Nadine and I embarked on a new journey of becoming blended.  I mean becoming because it has been a process of blending two families into one.  The story goes back over 20 years when I began taking my car to Airpark Auto Service to get an oil change.  I don’t know anything about cars and so it has been a very anxiety provoking experience of taking a car to a repair place and having no idea what they might find or whether they would tell the truth.

My first experience was with the service manager Aaron who was very friendly and told me that everything was fine, but I might need to be aware of a couple of things in the future.  This was different from other repair places as he wasn’t trying to sell me a job, but to be aware of possible problems down the line.  I was sold and have taken my car there for 21 years.  Stacy and Nadine were owners of Airpark Auto Service, so I got to know both of them over the years and was saddened when I learned 11 years ago that Stacy had died of cancer.

About 6+years ago my wife died and I had to grieve over her untimely death with 2 children in the home and one having been launched.  It was about 4 years ago when I took my car in to get it serviced and in the process Nadine and I talked for over an hour.  The rest is history as we were married December 17, 2011.

This blog comes out of our experiences of blending my three children (two young women and a 17 year old teenage boy entering his last year of high school) with her three children (one young woman and two young men, one of which just graduated from high school and is starting college this week).

This has been a new journey of blending two distinctly different families with eight different personalities with eight different journeys of their own and eight different expectations within the family.  Each of them have had different experiences with their late parent that adds to the complexity of this blended phenomena.

If you are in a blended family experience, welcome to the ride and hope you get some tools and structures to help your situation.