I have come to appreciate Christmas more as my years progress. There was a time before my first marriage and between its end and the start of my new marriage, that it was a time of lesser meaning - part feeling alone, but mostly feeling a lack of purpose. It is only recently, due to an article that I read about how the story of Jesus wouldn't be complete without his step-father, Joseph. In that article, I discovered the kind of man Joseph was and, when taken in the context of the days in which they existed, it took a man of extreme courage to take on a woman carrying a baby not his own and help raise that child as one of his own. I will not lay claim to being as good a man as the step-father of our Lord and Savior, but I can say that I am proud of the children I have helped raise - 4 in fact. And I have found that I had a purpose all along and still do. So, in wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, I want to also thank the step-fathers in my life and those out there doing their best and hope that they will see that they, too, have a purpose and reason to be the best man they can for the children in their life.