I have been taught a lesson.

Humbled, I almost cried in the AC's classroom yesterday.  His teacher is one of my good friends, who understands what we have all been through, and loves and supports the AC in the best way - little bit of cuddle when he needs it, little bit of carrot, little bit of man up!  Apparently *she* nearly cried when he spoke to her as well.

Regular readers will be aware that I have been torn over how much contact to try and have with the BG, how much to tell her in the blog and how to do it, how much I miss her and her being in our lives.  Trauma, trauma, navel-gazing trauma.

Why do I call it that?

Because of my son's maths work.

They were asked, as a handling data exercise, where they would be in a Venn diagram of brothers and sisters.  The Adorable Child wrote his name in the middle.  Clearly, strongly, no discussion.  He then went and showed his teacher, and double checked that step-families counted.  She said it was up to him, but she would say yes.  He told her he had a brother in Lem, and a sister in America.

All that stuff I was told about how it is only blood that matters.
All the stuff from the She-Ex about how we are nothing to BG now.
All the legal stuff, the vicious words, the painful conversations, the downright lies from the rest of them, and it takes a small boy to cut through the stupidness and show the truth.

My son may be an only child in blood, but in love he has siblings whom he loves.

I have been shown the way by a child.  A child with an open heart and a loving sense of forgiveness.