It's Gets Easier Because You Get Stronger

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One thing I have learned about life over the past three or four years is that things that once created massive amounts of stress for me don't get me as worked up anymore. Days that would leave me sick to my stomach and with a headache are minimally stressful to me now. I realize it's not because those events have gotten easier, but rather it's because I have gotten stronger and better equipped to handle them.

Going to court is one of these events. Another is seeing my stepdaughter's biological mother who has done so much harm to her, my husband, to me and the peace and well-being of our family in general. Occasionally I catch myself and marvel for a moment that I am in the middle of something that used to really push me over the edge and now it feels like just a minor annoyance. When friends say they can't imagine how I've survived what we've been through over the past few years I realize how much I have been through and I see that I am stronger for it. If life is meant to be full of lessons, they will get exponentially more challenging to keep up with our growth.

Some days it just getting through ten minutes, sitting down and then trying again for ten more minutes. But learning to deal with our challenges and stresses is possible and there is a lot of help out there to help us get through it. Join a stepparents group, go to a therapist, get involved in couples or family therapy. Find programs that help strengthen the family and improve marriage relationships. There are thousands of parenting and stepparenting articles online and websites devoted to strengthening marriage and family. There is no reason to suffer in silence. Sometimes as a stepmom it's easier to just get on the "complain & be annoyed" carousel where you are guaranteed to have plenty of company and just keep riding it around and around, never making any progress and continuing to be unhappy. It's not worth it.

You have every capability to thrive through your challenges and improve your life and the life of your family. Take the challenge, reach for new heights. Be an inspired stepmom. There are plenty of miserable stepmoms out there already. That club doesn't need more members. But the inspired stepmoms club is a noble cause, a call of great challenge and one that will help any woman grow into a better more beautiful version of herself!

Sending all you stepmoms out there big love. You have an amazing power to make your family's life a happy one no matter the circumstances.