James and Carletta Youngs have been married for more than 10 years now. When they met, Carletta was a single mom with 2 daughters and James was the non-custodial parent of two kids (a son and a daughter.) They fell in love, got married, and quickly found out that blending a family was going to be more difficult than they thought.
There were emotional impacts for everyone involved. Carletta’s girls had to adjust to someone else being brought into the close circle that they had established. And James felt like an outsider coming into the circle. James also had a hard time dealing with the fact that his children were not in the household with him. And James’s kids were hurting because they did not want to leave their father when it was time to go home after their visits.
All of this strain led Carletta to consider divorce. But thank God the Youngs made a conscious decision to take divorce off of the table and to become intentional about establishing a happy home for their blended family.
They now say that the key ingredient to the success of their blended family is: LOVE!
The Youngs stress that it is very important to find out everyone’s love language in the family (including the kids) so that you can love them the way they need to be loved. They also established new routines and traditions with their blended family. This included lots of family vacations.
Whether you have a blended family or not, you will want to hear about the steps that the Youngs took to be able to proclaim:
“In spite of the difficulties that come with bringing together a blended family, our marriage is still standing because of LOVE.”
To learn more about the Youngs’ story, see them in our latest film, Still Standing. And if you are in Atlanta on September 13, 2012, please join us for a special screening of Still Standing. For ticket information click here.
BMWK Family – Was transitioning into your blended family harder than you thought? Please share with us your experiences and some tips keeping the family together.