I've been blessed to have had a stable family throughout my childhood, and hopefully it'll continue to be stable in the future. The only things that have truly affected the family atmosphere and structure are the deaths of my grandfathers, but those things can't be helped.

I'm not saying families with single parents or divorced ones can't be happy. I have lots of friends whose families are happy and are on good relations even with divorces. I just know if my immediate family had that, I wouldn't be able to handle it. When I was little, I didn't like change at all. As a result, I missed a lot of opportunities, but hey I couldn't change who I was back then. 

I extremely admire my cousin because of that.

When he was two, his parents divorced, and I believe his father got total custody of him, so I guess his mother left him. My uncle remarried, so my cousin got a stepmother and a half-sister, which I didn't even know was only half until I was eight. I thought the whole time that my aunt was his mother, since no one mentioned my cousin's birth mother. Then when I was ten, my uncle and aunt divorced, and my aunt took my younger cousin to California. At the time, they had been living in China. My cousin, the older one, learned of this divorce when he was living with me on the East Coast. He got here because his father wanted him to go to an American middle school so it would be easier for him to get into an American high school, and it would be easier to get into an American college. (Both of my cousins are American btw, born here, raised here, then moved to China for a few years and went to some international schools, like the one Amber, Jessica, and Krystal attended.)

My mother then tried to apply guardianship for my cousin, but it became too complicated. So my cousin went and reconnected with his birth mother, who lives in our country, so that he could go to school here and gain American documents (my uncle is a Chinese citizen but has a green card). He visits her, after being estranged from her for 10 years, and now we know that she remarried and has another son, so now my cousin has a half-sister on his dad's side AND a half-brother on his mother's side.

AND my uncle just remarried, so my cousin has two adult stepbrothers.

>.<

I guess because he's a guy, he's stronger emotionally, but I would have been so confused and distraught in his situation. It's amazing he managed to get into the Ivy League. 

My cousin, hwaiting! I admire you so much, even though you think you're worse off academically than me and my sister. It doesn't matter, because you've been through so much and still have managed to stay so strong.

So how are you guys and your families?