I'm divorcing a husband, not a family

A couple of weeks ago, before I went on vacation, I quietly slipped a big piece of personal news into my last blog entry. My husband of almost seven years and I are divorcing.

I've been down this road before, but a big difference is that we had a child together while we were married. I've also been a part of his older children's lives for the past 10 years. As soon as we started talking in January about splitting, I knew that I didn't want my association with the older children -- a sophomore in college, a sophomore in high school and a seventh-grader -- to end.

So in an effort to keep the bigger family unit as intact as possible, I'm travelling down a path that, as far as I can tell, not very many soon-to-be-ex-wives pursue. The mother of my older kids, which would make her my ex's first wife, has moved into the house where me, my 5-year-old daughter and my mother live. We are still not very long into this arrangement, but so far it seems to be working out well for us.

This should stabilize things for all of us some, enabling the kids who are still at home to continue growing up in the house we moved into five years ago. And now Katie will get to be with her sisters every day, instead of just part of every week.

Obviously, this wouldn't work for everyone. But I've always had a pretty good relationship with "Nona." And from watching her example these past 10 years, I've learned how important it is to do what's best, in the bigger scheme of things, for the family.

It's a new adventure, one I'm sure will bring about some bumps along the way. But family takes many forms. This will be my story about trying to keep a family together in a nontraditional way through a difficult time.