Big D little a, double l,a,s!

When our 3rd grandson was born, his parents were already having marital problems - I'm too old to say they had "issues." They had problems. DS's wife had a child from a previous relationship and perhaps she wanted a dad for her daughter.

Along came our son, her rescuer and Knight in Shining Armor. They met while she was pregnant and he stood by her through the pregnancy and birth. They married when her little girl wasn't quite a year old. Ten months later our son's son was born. I can still remember how excited he was to learn he was going to be a father. He told his dad, "Hey, I finally got one past the goalie." Okay, it wasn't poetry but it was him.

He became a dad to his wife's little girl as the birthdad wasn't in the picture at all. He expected to adopt her. Shortly after the birth of this precious boy, DIL announced she wanted out of the marriage - she had fallen in love with a man she worked with. About two months later she filed for divorce.

Our son moved in with us temporily and we hurriedly bought baby furniture. While purchasing a crib, DH turned to me and said, "This isn't exactly how I planned to spend my golden years." Good thing we don't always know what the future brings, right? Little did we know then how even more complicated our "golden years" would get! The little girl continued to call our son dad and us grandma and grandpa for the longest time. And DIL corrected her every time she did. It was very painful.

Ex-DIL married her co-worker and now lives in Texas with our grandson who spends every summer here with his dad. Last Christmas it looked like he was going to be here permanently but it didn't happen. Perhaps this year it will. DS has a new wife and we love her like a daughter. They would like to have chidren but it hasn't happened yet. She is an excellent mother to DGS.

Ex-DIL never wanted sons. When she was pregnant with DGS and they learned it was a boy, she pouted and sulked for weeks. She and her husband have no children together but he has four boys from a prior marriage. The birthdad of her daughter is now in the picture, lives in California and sees his daughter every summer. He has never married and has no other children.