How My Stepdaughter’s Mom Became My Friend.

candice and daughter

After years of building a wall, we finally learned how to build a bridge. After years of drawing a hard line, we finally learned how to draw a soft circle. After years of being separate families, we finally learned how to become one.

This wasn’t her original plan and it wasn’t my original plan, but here we are and this precious girl between us deserves the best of both of us. If I’m being honest, even if this sweet girl wasn’t between us, I’d still love the woman next to her.

We’ve learned how to be each other’s cheerleader. We’ve learned a ton about forgiveness and grace. We’ve learned how to love each other through the thick of things. We’ve learned how to be moms together and it’s a bonus that we became friends.

We’ve traveled a rough road filled with potholes and speed bumps, but we finally figured out that we owe it to our daughter to build a bridge. She comes first. Her health and happiness outweigh anything we’ve been holding against each other.

Bitterness is heavy and we grew weary, so we set it down. When the weight was gone, we were free, and forgiveness easily followed. Now she gets both of us, both families, all of her siblings, all of her parents, and two moms who truly love and care about each other. I can’t imagine a more beautiful gift we could ever give her.


candice curry

Broken things can be fixed and they can be more beautiful than they were before.

Thank you, Jonsie, for sharing our sweet girl, for showing me grace and mercy, for embracing all of her siblings, and for letting me have a role in raising our girl.

This story originally appeared on candice curry

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