The John Edwards affair: Should Elizabeth Edwards accept her husband's love child?

This comes as a surprise to no one, except maybe John Edwards himself. According to North Carolina TV station WRAL, Senator Edwards is set to admit that he actually is the father of his former mistress's 18-month-old daughter. The National Enquirer, which initially broke the news (or "news"?) of his affair, reported that the results of a paternity test prove that Edwards is baby Frances' dad.

A positive result on a paternity test is usually 99.99 percent accurate. That means that the chances of someone else being the dad are slim-to-none.

Edwards acknowledged the affair with Rielle Hunter last year (a federal grand jury is reportedly investigating whether he illegally used his campaign funds to pay Hunter to keep quiet about it). But the senator has consistently denied being the father of her baby, insisting that the affair ended in 2006, before the baby was even conceived. In fact, Edwards told Bob Woodruff on ABC news last year: "I know that it's not possible that this child could be mine because of the timing of events, so I know it's not possible. Happy to take a paternity test, and would love to see it happen."

Apparently, he took that test in secret recently -- and the results weren't quite what he expected.

WRAL (citing anonymous sources) says that Edwards will probably confirm that he's the father at some point before the federal grand jury finishes its investigation.

There's bound to be some pretty severe fall out over the flip-flop, though I don't see how things could get any worse for Edwards than it already have, politically speaking, at least. When news of the affair broke, his supporters rallied around him -- even his wife, Elizabeth, said publically that she and their children would stand by him. A former Edwards aide, Andrew Young, stepped up to the plate, claiming to be the child's father, and Hunter later agreed that he was (the birth certificate does not list a name for the father). But now that the last round of semi-true confessions have turned out to be lies, who is going to believe anything Edwards says?

As usual, I'm wondering about Edwards' family -- specifically, his wife and kids. What should they do about the news? I don't mean the infedelity aspect of it -- his wife has dealt with that pretty thoroughly, in her book, in the media, and on her own. I'm talking about the child. What should Elizabeth do now, if anything, about her children's newly acknowledged half sister?

Should she accept little Frances while continuing to shun mom Rielle Hunter? Allow her own young children to meet their sibling, and let her older kids decide for themselves?

Since this has all played out in the public eye, sweeping the affair under the rug isn't an option, and since the toddler is the product of the affair -- not the cause of it -- it seems wrong to shame her because of something her parents did. All married couples deal with the blending of families, to an extent. Stepparents deal with it more than most, having to knit together relationships between existing children. But how do you blend in a new family member after an affair? Should you even try?

Lylah M. Alphonse writes about juggling career and parenthood at The 36-Hour Day and Work It, Mom!, is the Child Caring columnist for Boston.com/Moms, and blogs at Write. Edit. Repeat.