This morning is a perfect example of how co-parenting SHOULD look.  As I was walking into work this morning, I was thinking about how thankful I am since the morning went so smoothly, because after sleeping in a little longer than I should have I wasn’t sure it would go well at all.  There were many moving parts, but now that I am sitting at my desk drinking another cup of coffee I feel such peace and happiness… and marvel at what we all do to put the kids first.

Joe’s kids spent last night with their mom, but since he volunteered to carpool for his daughter’s chorus rehearsal, he had to be in Wake Forest at 7:45am anyway.  So he offered to pick his kids up and take them to school as well.  His ex had appointments this morning, so it worked out well for both of them.  He got to spend time with his kids for a few minutes before school and she got to work.

My daughter spent last night with her dad, but she had an orthodontist appointment at 8am, so her stepmom brought her to our house at 7:30am.  That in itself is a bigger deal than it sounds since they live in Zebulon and we live in downtown Raleigh.  My son yelled up to me while I was getting ready, “Amy wants to know if she can take me to school?”  I ran down the stairs to find them standing in the kitchen next to a sweet note from Joe by a full pot of coffee.  He had even fixed lunch for my son before he left early this morning!  Only two weeks in and he is proving to be such a good stepdad to my kids.

I told Amy that I would love for her to take my son to school since I had not even finished getting ready and my daughter’s appointment was in 20 minutes.  So my son finished his breakfast and they headed out the door.  Her willingness to take him to school (and her desire to spend a few minutes with him on the drive there) made me smile.

Now don’t get me wrong, I would have MADE it work, because that’s what I do.  I could have dropped my daughter at the orthodontist and then taken my son to school and then gone back to the orthodontist (and we would have all been stressed out at the end)… but thankfully I didn’t HAVE to.  That simple offer by their stepmom to take my son to school gave me time to finish getting ready and we still got to the orthodontist five minutes early.

It was a great morning… Joe got to take his kids to school.  His ex got more time to get ready for her appointments.  My son got to school early, which is apparently a big deal to a middle school boy.  My daughter got to her orthodontist appointment early without the stress of rushing around late.  Their stepmom got to spend time with my son and got to work early.  I got to have a stress-free morning with a hot cup of coffee, a sweet note from my hubby, and smiles and hugs from my babies.

There were many moving parts, and what a blessing to us all… and smiles all around as we all got to enjoy the morning doing what we love.  We may not look like other families, but we are all a family just the same.