It seems fitting that today is also National Tree Day, as both days celebrate biodiversity, familial extensions and new growth.
Last year in the UK and US, stepfamilies outnumbered first families for the first time, with demographers predicting that Australia will catch up by 2020.
Even though rates of divorce and remarriage are so high, being in a stepfamily is rife with complications, and often members of stepfamilies feel isolated. The last five years, in which I have lived in a stepfamily, have been the most joyous and the most confusing of all my 37 years.
In 2009, when I was at my wit's end as to how I would ever reconcile who I was becoming with who I had been before I was a stepmother, I set out on a journey of recording my own experiences as well as those of 50 other stepmothers from around the world.
Hundreds of hours talking, thousands of hours writing and countless litres of tea drinking later, I am overjoyed to announce that the first draft of my manuscript is finished.
As we don't have a printer, this is the first time I have printed out the whole draft to read. Besides all the people I have to thank for their help so far, thank you to the trees, to the trees.
