A Richter Blend, Stepfamily Chronicles

Romance. Love. Hate. Heart-pounding frustration. Alienation. Family Law venues. Bitterness. Loyalty Binds. Torn. Restoration.

Written to demonstrate the kaleidoscope experiences and emotions parents, stepparents and children feel while caught in the throes of stepfamily and shared-parenting, A Richter Blend, Stepfamily Chronicles is the key element of Step Family Focal Points Corner. Partnered with with group benefits of Stepfamily Assimilation and Shared-Parenting Management (SAM) Planning and articles from a wide array of children & family services, financial, legal and education professionals, StepfamilySystems.com provides an innovative, unique brand of support to single, remarried and step parents, as well as stepchildren who are 12 (with parental consent) and older.

As you journey into the lives of several families living in the foothills of the fictitious coastal community of Port Hills, this written, prime-time type of series will make you groan in frustration, grab a Kleenex box, cheer out loud and call your friends while slowly increasing empathic feelings for others as stories unfold, twist and change.

Anyone who has been or is a stepchild, divorced and single parenting, or remarried with children will immediately relate to the stories. They are written based on true-to-life experiences about the inherent challenges of raising children who have parents in two households. A Richter Blend, Stepfamily Chronicles aspires to bring characters face to face with what can be true of human nature during this stressful season. It will come along side readers to provide true-to-life tips and information provided by the Stepfamily Strategy Team of contributing professionals at the end of each episode. Simply click on the Stepfamily Strategy Team Contributors page after reading new episodes. (See Terms of Use/Disclaimer Tab)

One or more of our characters are likely to reflect aspects of your experiences as well as experiences of others you know:

Cooperton's Story:

Macy Solei Cooperton has been a homemaker since the birth of the first of the three Cooperton children. She recently filed for divorce and is seeking employment. Her parents divorced when she was 9. Her mom had difficulties settling down after divorcing Macy's dad. He remarried quickly, but lost his wife to cancer.

Stephen Cooperton - after a few booming years and planning for early retirement, he is now a struggling mortgage loan officer at YF Mortgage Corporation. The Cooperton's home is in foreclosure. Stress has him questioning life. His parents have been married 40 years. He has two sisters and two brothers and does not want to be the first in his family to go through a divorce.

Ameliana, Jackson and Hayden Cooperton - The children are 10, 8 and 4 years old. While Ameliana and Jackson are in 4th and 2nd grades, Hayden is starting pre-k now that Macy is searching for work.

Joanna - Stephen's Loan Officer Assistant since 1999. She is a fiesty, full-sized Italian woman from the East Coast and she is fiercely loyal to Stephen.

Eddie Wetzel-Ott- a 51-year-old cafeteria worker in the building where YF Mortgage Corporation is located. He is a dependable, developmentally challenged character your heart will enjoy following.

Cathy - Macy's best friend from the Port Hills Little League Association.

Sterling James - neighbor of the Cooperton's and President of the Port Hills Bank. Macy is applying for a Teller position at Port Hills bank; Macy has a "complicated" connection with Sterling.

Delrose Hazelwood - a wise, retirement-age neighbor of the Cooperton's and Sterling James. She has a way with people and lives in the original home of Port Hills, around which all others were built years later.

Dave and Carolyn Cooperton present the grandparents perspective - Stephen's parents take one grandchild home every third weekend for Nanny and Poppa time. They bake together, do homework together, go to the parks together and have fun spoiling them before taking them home on Sunday afternoon after church and lunch at a restaurant their grandchild has chosen, of course! They had always dreamed of being grandparents. They have concerns about losing precious time with the grandchildren.

Westcott Story:

Grey Westcott - never married and has no children. Hoping her luck with the wrong guy is a thing of the past and hopes to find the right man. Will it be Arlo?

Arlo Sanchez - divorced, has two children and an ex-wife with a reputation.

Felicia and Candy - friends of Grey who are frequently mistaken to be her sisters.

Normandy Story:

Vera Normandy - is Macy's cousin and lives in an adjoining state not too far away. Frequently visits the coffee shop where she has pondered her position as a newly divorced woman many times over the past weeks and months. However, her luck might be changing with men more quickly than she thinks.

Katherine Normandy - teenage daughter, not taking the recent divorce of her parents well, especially since there is another woman involved.

John Normandy - 42 years old, has a knack for letting his eyes scan in search of the additional validation that he is still the handsome BMOC - big man on campus - he was in high school and college. Presently, he is involved with a 24 year old.

Ted - the strutting "ladies man" at Vera's office

Carmen's Story:

Carmen presents the youth and teen perspective - Carmen babysits for several families within the Ports Hills community. This allows her to witness the interactions of our Port Hills families and recount them from the perspectives of children and youth. Being an intelligent observer her perspective creates an interesting insight.

A Richter Blend, Stepfamily Chronicles.

On line publishing by StepfamilySystems.com

1101 California Ave., Ste. 100, Corona, CA 92881

Legal representation, Parker Stanbury, LLP (213) 995-0001

First Editor, R. D. Atkins

Second Editor, Tina Kitras

Freelance Writers:

Patricia H. Powe, Cooperton Family Story

Michelle Lamb, Grey Westcott Story

Tina Kitras, Macy Cooperton's Cousin, Vera Normandy Story

R.D. Atkins, Delrose Hazelton, Cooperton's senior neighbor, grandparent perspective

Skye C. Weaver, Co-Writer, Youth/Teen Perspective

Mystery Writers: Men's perspective

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

From Tricia H. Powe, Creative Director of A Richter Blend, Stepfamily Chronicles:

There is so much in store for our readers as the stories grow to include the extended family relationships, friends, co-workers and others around the town of Port Hills. Here is some information for those who are new to stepfamily life. I encourage you not to borrow trouble that is not your own. Try not to assume what is true of someone else's situation will necessarily be true of your own:

Stepfather families: The man is the stepparent. This type of stepfamily tends to have less stress than the other types of stepfamilies (Visher & Visher, 1979)

Stepmother families: The woman is the stepparent. These families tend to experience much more stress than stepfather families (Santrock & Sitterle, 1987)

Complex stepfamilies: Both adults have children from a previous relationship. White & Booth (1985) found the greatest likelihood of divorce is in this family structure.

Suprafamily system: "This includes, at a minimum, the members of the two households in which the parents of the children now reside...there can be at least three important households where stepsiblings [and half-siblings] are relating to each other. Many times the grandparents also play important roles in the suprafamily system drama, while aunts, uncles, and cousins can be important as well." (Visher and Visher, 1988)

Because of the super-highway type of connections to other households through the kids, boundaries can be unclear or challenged, outside influences which disrupt the immediate family grouping can be resented, and a lack of smooth co-conducting between the parents can adversely impact the post-divorce and regrouping adjustments of the children and their parents, increasing the risk of academic neglect. Conversely, expanded family contacts can increase the opportunity for someone to see the need to come along side a distressed child and fill in the gap distracted parenting creates. This outside person is frequently the one trying to become an insider - the stepparent. When adult relationsips cannot be resolved the impact can be so profound. We forget or are unaware that those who are most bitter, unkind and unwilling to reach out for restoration are still wounded, or deeply ashamed and they do not know how to get free. Keeping family members emotioally distant is their protection. (Powe, 1990)