Cameron is my step daughter, our only daughter. She lives with her mother and little brother in Wisconsin. Her mother and father have worked together since day one to make sure Cameron has what she needs from both sides of the family. Wes and Cam's mother filed divorce papers in January 2004, and although things were a bit strained at first, they settled before the year was up. Since then we have gotten to talk to her when ever we wanted, have gotten tons of pictures as she has grown, lots of updates and emails about how she was doing, and always felt like we were connected to her. It was a lot of work for her mother to help us have this connection, but she knew it was best for her daughter so she kept at it.
When Cameron was three, we paid for her and her mother to come to Alaska and spend a week here. We made sure we got a hotel close by so that her mom would not be too far away from her daughter when she was with us. Her mother let her spend the night when she got comfortable with us, and Cam's mom even had dinner with us a few times as well as joined us on a trip around Alaska. It was a bit uncomfortable for her and I at first, but after a while I knew she was a lot like me in the way she thought. Since then Cameron has visited us in the summer for three months. It is always going to be a challenge for her and us to have her learn our routine and way of life. She has to adjust just the same as we do, and it is not easy. As long as open communication happens from our home to her home in WI then Cameron has an easier time adjusting. It gets interesting, but not something we really have a big problem with.
This year, since we are moving, we can not get her the beginning of summer vacation as we would like. It is breaking our hearts. We don't even know if there will be enough time after leaving here to pick her up on our way. Even one week with her is better than nothing and we hope the military will oblige. We want to grab her on our way through, and keep her until she has to get ready for school.
Her mom is doing us a favor by redoing the court papers. In the original, we have zero visitation listed. We get what her mom gives us. She has NEVER used that against us in anyway. We have ALWAYS gotten our time with her with no complaints. She has done this for Cameron for many years and visitation and custody has never been disputed. Cameron's mom is taking the documents back to her lawyers to fix them to read that we get Cameron every summer and some holidays. That is MORE than we ever had, and more than we could ask for. Either way, with or without the papers, we know that we would get this time with her anyway.
I just wanted everyone to know that Cameron's mom is wonderful and it IS possible to have a relationship with and ex that benefits your children and can give them a well rounded view of life. Things are rarely perfect, but the relationship we have with our daughters mom is about as good as it can get.
We send our love and blessings to her and her family, and thank them for working with us to give Cameron the world.
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