As I sit here in the study surrounded by my books beautifully displayed in a custom-built bookshelf, listening to the kids packing up their beds in the living room and smelling bacon and eggs cooking for breakfast, I can barely recognise my life.
I have gone from a highly insulated solitary existence to being part of a crazy family. Duckfishman loves me more than anyone else has ever loved me before and because we can’t bear to be apart we are now living together.
We have a beautiful one bedroom apartment with 12 foot ceilings, a gourmet kitchen and waterfront views. Even though we argue about the right way to put the bin liner in the rubbish bin, and whether a plastic toad holding an umbrella is appropriate accessorizing, we have having a ball. We spend hours laughing, talking, crying (me not him), kissing and making love and that is more important than a bin liner.
His kids come to spend the weekend with us and fill up the house with chaos and mess. Sometimes my ovaries ache for the children I never had but this seems a wonderful alternative.
If you had told me one year ago that my life would look like this in August 2010, I would never have believed you. It is such a cliché to say that, but in this case, it is so true.