To quote Charles Dickens, the past few months have been the best of times and worst of times for Mel Gibson. The Oscar winner was eagerly anticipating the birth of his daughter with his new girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, but there was a dark cloud hanging over his head — his fractured relationship with his seven kids.

Mel’s brood took their mother Robyn’s side when the couple split in April after 28 years of marriage, and they didn’t exactly welcome 39-year-old Oksana with open arms.

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“Mel has been making every effort to get his kids and Oksana to work things out,” a family insider tells BettyConfidential. “The kids are not fond of her, but Mel told them that she is who he wants to spend the rest of his life with and they should accept her. They think he is a fool in love and going through a midlife crisis, but Mel is their father and they want him in their lives. They just don’t want any part of Oksana.”

But now that his new daughter, Lucia, has been born, friends hope that this little ray of sunshine will be the one who helps bridge the gap between Mel’s kids and his baby mama.

A source on the New York set of the movie he’s shooting, The Beaver, said the 53-year-old could hardly contain his excitement in the days leading up to Lucia’s birth on Friday and was eager to fly back to California where Oksana was waiting.

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“They are just about done filming, but Mel requested time off for the baby’s birth,” the insider says. “But he was back on Sunday, working as promised. No matter what he has pulled in the past, when he is on set, he is there to work hard. He is always prepared, even with the distraction of a new baby!”

The source says each of Mel’s kids are special to him but he is “thrilled to have another girl in his clan. The guys have always overwhelmed the girls, so he was very excited when Oksana learned it was a girl. He’s a protective and dedicated family man and he is hoping all the kids will love their new baby sister.”

Magazine and newspaper reporter Kelly Will has written celebrity columns for the New York Times, the New York Daily News and the New York Post. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/misswill.

JoAnna Zulli is a New York-based writer who has worked for Star, Soap Opera Magazine, Woman's World and In Touch.