An apt description of my house, sort of. The two girls are my new wife and my new stepdaughter. And you know what? It's great.

First off, I'm now married got a beautiful woman in my life who loves me very much (and vice versa). This is normally as much as any man can ask out of life. You want to know what commitment is? It's someone in your life who wants to marry you with the given that divorce is never going to be an option. At times in my life I thought I might have to wait until midlife to find someone like that. Turns out I only had to wait until I was twenty-five. God is good.

But when I chose to be with her, I got this sweet little eleven-year-old girl as part of the deal. And in her own way, she's just as great to have around as her mom is. She liked me, in that wonderful unconditional sort of way, from the very first weekend we met, and it's just gotten better and better since the engagement ring.

She still has a Dad. She has to go see him every other weekend as part of the court settlement. He's "Dad", and I'm called by my first name. But that's fine. I still get hugs when I come home from work and good-night kisses and "I love you"s, which is really all a guy can ask for from his kid.

She's not my girl, of course, not in the biological sense. And I'll never have the opportunity to adopt her legally. But for months, even before the marriage, I've thought of her as mine. And she seems to thrill to that idea just as much as her mom does.

Two girls, one guy. A good house for us all to share. And all the unconditional love one could possibly hope for. Who could ask for anything more?

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.