Oh his family drama just keeps getting worse. At least I care way less about it now.
Let me be clear: I do not care less about how much this is hurtful to my H. If anything I'm even more enraged and resentful over it (I put the blame of a lot of his craziness over the past year squarely on his f-ed up upbringing) for how it has hurt him. But what they think of me? I couldn't care less. It's refreshing, actually, in that aspect.
But I won't bore you all with the drama.
H and I burned some hotel points that he had to use or lose for New Years, and my parents watched the baby. We had a good time. I think my family is a little more accepting of H back in our lives, not to say any of them really said anything super negative about him ever.
I feel like I really did try to present him as mentally ill during the last year, versus being an arrogant, selfish d-bag. I mean, he was acting that way, but due to his MLC/post-partum depression/whatever you want to call it.
H's favorite present was actually a letter my step brother wrote to him. Brother (who has a heroin addiction... sober for 6 months today though), wrote he and me individual letters telling us how sorry he was for any behaviors he may have done that were hurtful and to tell us how much we mean to him. Apparently in H's letter, brother also told him how glad he is that he's "back to normal" and considers H to be like the brother he never had. H cried and hugged him for a very long time.
H and I still have things to work on. We'll always have things to work on. I'm finding that I'm giving him a heads up more often when I'm already a little keyed up (like yesterday, was the first day back for students. I thought I was going to die by 2 PM). That seems to help him lower the bar a little when he knows I'm already raised. And we made a big R step this week: we opened our first joint checking account and first joint credit card.
This. Is. Huge.
I think he's still a little worried that I don't see the changes. I do. But I also see the potential for back slide, and that scares me. I'm just still cautious. But cautiously optimistic.
