Step-Families

I am thankful every day that my family unit is intact and in a loving, (mostly) harmonious state.  However, I know several people who have been effected by divorce.  I had one friend in high school, Nicole, who had a long genealogical history of divorce.  She had about eight grandparents and four parents and who knows how many step-siblings.  I knew her when Prop 8 was a big issue in California, especially where we lived.  We spoke about the issue one day and where we stood on it.  She told me that she felt that love was a precious thing, and if you found it, then you should be together, no matter what.  It was too great and too rare, she said.  Coming from her family background as she had, I could see where this philosophy came from.  It was interesting for me to see that divorce could make the people it affected feel the way Nicole did about love.  Divorce didn't always make people bitter.  Sometimes, it gave them hope for something better.