Story 1:

n junior year of high school, my dad got remarried to the woman he’d cheated on my mom with several years prior.

As an angsty teenager, I was none too thrilled with his new marriage and was honestly pretty cold towards her whenever we saw each other.

on my way to college, and my stepmom took off work to meet us there and send me off with a care package.

She hugged me and told me that she was proud of me, and when she stepped back, I saw that she had tears in her eyes.

When I was 8 years old, my mom got married for the second time. I was very hostile toward my stepfather. He was a nice man, but the very thought of him taking Dad’s place drove me crazy. Mom was torn between us.

It wasn’t until I was 10 when everything changed. It happened when he came to school to defend me from the teacher. I started ignoring him less often and agreed to go for walks together a couple of times.

That same year, on his birthday, I made him a present for the first time: I gave him an envelope with a card where I wrote, “Will you adopt me?” It was the first time I saw a grown man crying while tucked into the shoulder of a little girl. A month later, he became my dad, and after that my daddy.

Story 3:

I have always told my children, “Just because I’m not your father doesn’t make you any less my children.” I was never able to have offspring of my own, but my grandpa grew up in an orphanage. He always said the best part of a family has nothing to do with blood.