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Hi there, my name is Piper.

It’s not my real name but for obvious reason, there are no actual personal details on this website. But the stories? The feelings?

They are all too real.

In May of 2020, I met a man who completely changed my world. He came with three lovely children and one very complicated situation: a wife who simply refused to divorce him. Life was already a bit of a roller coaster, but I was happy to hold on tight and see where the ride took us.

Fast forward to February of 2025. One afternoon, his not-quite-ex-wife showed up at our door with two of their children, a few bags, and an abrupt announcement that she’d been fired from her job and was getting evicted so she was moving to Colorado to stay with family.

Just like that, she said it was his turn to “play parent.”

Hi…

Hello…

My house too….

To make things even more interesting, we had only recently introduced the two children to their half-brother, his son from a previous relationship living out of state. That story comes with its own chapter of twists and turns. The short version? While he was trying to patch things up with his ex, life threw in a surprise pregnancy. During a two year break he met a lovely woman. She was kind, grounded, but they just didn’t work out…they had a large, angry, jealous, chaos causing obstacle who would stop at nothing to get him back, but apparently that one final night before they called it quits, and he decided to give it another go with Daisy, well fertile Myrtle gave us a beautiful teenage boy to add to the equation.

So here we are. Suddenly, I’m a full-time mom in a house that was designed for adults, not preteen boys and angry teenage girls with stinky feet and big feelings no one knows quite what to do with.

My days are filled with learning, loving, meltdowns (theirs and mine), and figuring out how to blend all our lives into something that looks a little bit like family.

This blog is my real, raw, unfiltered journal. It’s about the messy middle, about becoming a “bonus mom,” about finding patience I didn’t know I had, and about realizing that love often grows best in the spaces we didn’t plan for.

My heart poured out one post at a time. It’s the story of learning how to love children who didn’t come from me but who have changed me completely. It’s about the growing pains, the beautiful chaos, and the quiet moments when I finally start to understand what family really means.

If you’re here for honesty, laughter, tears, and the occasional chaos, you’re in the right place.

Welcome to my world.
This is my story.