Marriage is tough.

There is no doubt that two people coming together to build a home is a wonderful thing. I love my husband with all my heart, and I’m grateful for the blessings that come with marriage.

Because we both have been divorced, we double down to protect our marriage.

Neither of us would wish divorce on anyone. Our divorces were both the fallout destruction wrought by adulterous spouses.

As much pain as it brought us, it brought more pain and instability to our children.

They are the innocent victims of the poor choices of their parents.

Our prior marriages were not salvageable, due to the unrepentant nature of the adulterous spouse.

This is easy to explain logically, but it has left landmines in the lives of our children, and they have to dodge them at unexpected times, popping up in their lives to wreak emotional havoc.

Neither my husband nor I had to deal with divorce as children. Our parents have been married for over 50 years and 60 years, respectively. So the help we try to lend our children is based on counselors, books, and the Bible.

We do everything we can for our children. The best thing we can do is to love each other, and show our children an example of what an intact family is.

We can’t go back and change the past, but we can strive for a stable future.

The effects of having an intact step family for the rest of our lives can potentially affect future generations.

More importantly, we pray it helps to heal the wounds our children have that were caused by a divorce.