Bonus vs. Step

Most of you know that as Tebo, Trevor, and I were coming back home from our cruise the first year Trevor lived with us we started calling our kids "bonus kids". This is how that came to be (not that I wouldn't love to take the credit, but that would be wrong). We were going through customs and the security lady helping us out asked Trevor if I was his mom. He said no, it's my step-mom. That lady said, don't you mean "bonus mom"? Isn't that a much nicer way of saying it? Trevor said, yeah, I guess so. Of course I jumped on that and knew right away we would adopt that term. Each time he would forget we would remind him. Not step, bonus. :) It took a little while, but he finally got it and now we use it for any extra "bonus" person/child in our lives. This applies to our (what use to be called in-laws) and our military boys. If you stop and think about it, it really is a bonus to have these new lives in your world. We sadly get divorced and blend families and we refer to them as "step" this and "step" that. No wonder we have so many blended families struggling to get along and make it. We start our lives together on a negative note. I encourage anyone and everyone to adopt this new term "BONUS". You will find that not only does it sound better, but I think it makes everyone feel better. "Step" is just a negative kind of ugly word when referring to family members. I challenge each of you reading this to start using "bonus" rather than "step" and see if you don't first feel better and then see if you don't get a better more positive response from people. I bet you do... I double dog dare you to give it a try.