🌼 You matter.

And your contributions as a stepparent matter.

A few years back, my SD and her mom got matching tattoos: a mama and baby elephant with their foreheads pressed together.

When my SD FaceTimed us to show off her new ink, I gushed appropriately but privately thought man that tattoo is such a metaphor. No room for anyone but the two of them, and no room for anything to come between them. I don’t know why I ever thought I even had a hope of forming some kind of meaningful relationship with this kid.

Then my SD said “Wait, I got this too” — and showed us her other arm: a tattoo of a daisy, my favorite flower, which she got during the same session. “It reminds me of you,” she said. And I had no words.