I have a 'sister' in my children's other mother of their brothers and sister way. She is older, when I got pregnant she took me in. I was 23 and I was in shock, scared and I needed a big sister to take care of me. She had two then, and half way through my first pregnancy she pops up pregnant with her third.
The house we lived in was a small three bedroom two bath, our baby father lived in his nice high rise condo. Two years after she took me in we had five Kids, three of hers and two of mine. We had our own daycare. That was ten years ago. Today we bought a four bedroom house, the girls share a room and the two younger boys share a room. Big brother has his room. I work outside the home, I have a fortyfive minute commute, my 'sister' works from home, she is a part time realtor and full time mom.
Our baby daddy provides most of the support, he has five kids with us, three boys which need their Dad, and he is far more involved than he thought he would be. Long ago he made his choices, now we are in the long run, day in and day out and we could never make it if he didn't hold up his end.
Ten years seems like a long time when I look back but these last ten years have gone by in the wink of an eye.