I always learned growing up that I’m supposed to share. Pretty simple, right? Wrong. Okay, well maybe sharing toys and snacks as a kid was easy peasy lemon squeezey.
As an adult, it becomes a whole lot more difficult to share. No, I’m not still talking about toys or snacks.... I am talking about my daughter.
Sharing my sweet girl is not something I thought I would be doing. I mean, yes sharing her with her dad isn’t difficult, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
Never would I ever have imagined my daughter having a second mother-like figure in her life. It’s taken me literally all 17 months of her life to even accept it. It bothered me. It was an extremely hard pill to swallow.
I wanted to be Arial’s one and only mommy.
Don’t get me wrong, I know I gave birth to her and am her actual mother, but you get what I’m saying.... or at least what I’m trying to say.
It kind of all hit me at once. I swallowed my pride pill. I finally accepted that it’s not just me and Matthew that are raising Arial. Katie plays just as big of a role in her life as him and I do.
For the longest time since everything happened, I didn’t even want Arial’s name coming out of her mouth. I was deeply wounded, and I let it cloud my parental judgement.
I have since then, forgiven Katie, allowed myself to trust her again, and finally accepted that she very well could be Arial’s step-mom some day.
A year and a half can give a person plenty of time to do those things. I feel so much happier as a human being, not having all that bitterness bottled up anymore. Forgiveness really does set you free.
So, anyways, long story short.... co-parenting is hard. Letting another woman love my child is hard. But, I promise you this.... it’s so worth it.
We all do this and work together because of the love and the compassion that we have for Arial.
In a weird, dysfunctional, yet totally functional way, we make a great team. I guess some would even consider this a family.
It is the hardest, but the best thing that all of us have been through.
Thank you, Matt and Katie for being so awesome and for always loving Arial. As long as we keep her number one, everything’s gonna be perfectly okay. Maybe even in her teenage years. Lol.
