Thankful, Coming of "Broken Home"

I came from a broken family, and was never ashamed of it.

I was born in the 80's. Where growing up in a broken family was just taboo. Too many people have this idea that complete is better than broken, which is true, I'm not saying it's not. It probably is wonderful having both your mom and dad in the same house, eating in the same dining table, praying, laughing, crying, practically doing everything together. I probably would have envied the great majority, had my step father became someone else.

My stepdad, or as my sister and I fondly call him "Tito", is a man of few words. You can't really say what's going on his mind, until he says it. He smiles only when he feels like it, throws the usual adult tantrums at times, but more often than not, you'd probably just be staring at a blank face. I spent half of my life growing up with my dad and my grand parents. My childhood is something that I'd never forget as it was quite a ride, but that's a different story.

The second half of my life, from college up until before I got married, I spent with my mom and my "Tito" since I lived with them. To cut the story short, my "Tito" picked up where my dad left of. When my father was unable to provide for my college tuition, he was there paying for it, and for my elder sister's too. He didn't have to do that in my opinion, but he did. During my birthdays, he would silently tell my mom to give me those expensive bottle of brandy, or to give me 1 or 2 of his lacoste polo shirt, which by the way is not cheap here in Manila. The most recent one, was when I really need to leave Manila since my wife is working abroad and I couldn't bear the thought of leaving her all alone anymore. I have already asked everyone that I know for help, but just like myself, I couldn't find someone who has a spare to lend me. When all else fails, I should have known, "Tito" luckily had some, and is lending me help again.

Sometimes, no, actually, a lot of times, I wanted to tell him how thankful I was to have him, but I'm just too shy, or I'm probably just afraid to cry in front of him. It's probably because I was never used to being affectionate of other people aside from my wife. I can't even tell my mom and my dad that I both love them in person, I just hope that they know that I do. That whatever it is that happened between them, is not something that I blame them for, up until this point, I am thankful as I grew up to be God-fearing, I finished college, I had a great career, I have great siblings and most of all, I have an awesome "Tito".

So just like my previous post, I took what I could out of life and disregarded the rest. I could have ended up broken had I chose to take those things that I could have discarded. I came from a broken family, but I was never broken. I came out whole, stronger and as a better person. I have 5 siblings, 1 mother and 2 fathers to watch my back.

Now, 1.5 set of parents is definitely better than 1 set right?