Sometimes, the road to marital happiness is a lot longer than you thought.
Nearly every newly-wed couple experiences discouragement on their way to happily ever after. In stepfamily couples, the pre-marriage fantasy of marital peace and harmony usually doesn’t become reality for five or more years because it takes the family that long to figure out how to be a family. Merging people and cultures takes a while. That’s why I like to joke that for stepfamily couples, the honeymoon comes at the end of the journey, not at the beginning. It may be longer but it's worth it.