The Gallery - Week 62 - Dads

I love the relationship my husband has with the two children we have together. He is a very 'hands on' sort of dad and spends as much time with them as other commitments permit.  They clearly adore him.

What I value even more than this is the relationship he has built with the four daughters from my first marriage.

When he came into my life, my daughters were fragile and scarred from a horribly messy marriage breakdown and a father who couldn't even comprehend what it meant to put their needs first.

My girls could have been hostile and suspicious but they were accepting and welcoming. As we gelled as a family unit, they understood for the first time how it could be - happiness, love, fun and support rather than arguing, tension and a lot of banging heads against brick walls.

My girls blossomed.

This picture was taken on Ivy's 16th birthday.

Of all my girls, she was the one who was most badly affected by the divorce. It is only now, five years later, that she is sorting it all out in her head. She is still adamant that she does not want to see her father or have any more than the barest minimum of contact. The other girls joke that she is not missing out - they have little more than the barest minimum of contact anyway, despite their willingness for more.

This was not supposed to be a bitter post about inadequate parenting. It is celebration of the fact that a non-biological father can bring so much into the lives of his stepdaughters and show them what it really means to be there for them - to be a dad.