Splitting up and reforming families

Separation. Divorce. Remarriages.

Topics I was not at all thrilled to read/learn about.

However, this became a topic that brought more joy to me than I thought it could. Yes, it is really sad to think about families splitting up, and I still don't like thinking about it. But, learning about remarriages and blended families and how you can diminish the typical difficulties in them made me really excited for some reason.

 Some interesting statistics we learned this week:

• After being divorced for 2 years, 70% of those people regret the divorce and could've saved it.
• 95% of people say they're satisfied with their marriage. (it isn't true that everyone is so unhappy in their marriages)
• It usually takes 2 years for blended families to reach normalcy. 

My professor married his wife when she already had two kids. His wife came in and they told us about their experiences. As we were closing up the class, he told us a video/song that his adopted son (one of the ones from his wife's previous marriage) showed him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjO1F6oCab8

I was tearing up and realized how great of a professor I have. We have the choice of how we treat our families and the example we set for them. He said that sometimes we glorify having the same genes as our children, but really we can be great parents whether they have our genes or not.

I've learned so much from this class and I have so much more confidence in my ability to have a successful, happy family!