Met my first wife in a country-western bar. She has three daughters from three different fathers. One was a drug smuggler who vanished. Another killed himself.
And another comes and goes without being responsible.
We had a son together and became involved with Christianity for a few years until she ran off with a self-proclaimed minister...but not before I beat him silly for abusing my kid. The marriage lasted six years. She has now been married four or five times.
The woman I'm married to now, I met in a coffee shop. We've been together for fifteen years, thirteen of them married. She has thre daughters and a son...all from the same father. He passed on a couple of years ago, possible drug overdose.
I consider both marriages to be learning experiences, successful or not.
If you manage to hold your individuality through a marriage, you're doing good.

"But from the beginning of the creation, God ??made them male and female.?? ??For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh??; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate?"
- Mark 10:6-9

Like I said, holding on to your individuality through this isn't easy. But, I feel that it's truly neccessary to do so in order to make a strong "one."

(my two cents)