Merging Adjacent Meshes of Differing Densities in ABAQUS

I am investigating crack propagation in brittle solids using abaqus for my undergraduate thesis. I am brand new to abaqus and am working my way through tutorials and examples. My goal is to create a 2d planar model that will show the process of crack initiation and propagation. I am getting stuck however when I try to create adjacent regions of differing mesh densities. For my model, I need an internal region of very fine mesh, and an outer region of very coarse mesh. The way I am trying to create this is by creating two parts and seeding them separately, and then joining them. So far it is working, however I have seen an example in the problems manual (1.4.4) that uses an orphan mesh as the main part of the model.  I am now trying to create an orphan mesh similar as the one in the manual, but on a very basic level.

I am creating two square parts of 10x10 units, that will be joined along a common boundary.

Part-1 is 10x10 size and has a 1x1 mesh using CPS8 elements.

Part-2 is 10x10 size and has a 2x2 mesh also using CPS8 elements. 

I want to merge these two parts into one part retaining the mesh orientations described above. 

My current method of achieving this is as follows:

1. create each part in the Part module assign the seeds and generate the mesh
2. once the mesh is generated I create a mesh part (also called an orphan mesh I believe) of each part, so now I have 4 parts (2x 10x10 parts and 2x 10x10 orphan meshes)
3. I now merge the two orphan meshes in the Assembly module, merging the nodes that are overlapping
4. run job analysis and view results

Now what I find is that the two meshes behave as normal, except that at the boundary where the nodes are merged, the element edges are opbviously not merged, and deflect according to the applied load ie. deflect apart. What I need is for those elements along the boundary to also merge.

The model that I have been looking at as a guide is example 1.4.4 in the Abaqus Example Problems Manual (abaqus doc v6.7). This is the crack growth in a beam with 3-point loading. As you can see in this model, the creator has made an orphan mesh including a few regions of differing mesh densities. I have read through much of the abaqus manual, but I am just not sure which parts are relevant to this particular problem.

I would appreciate any help at all. I feel as though I am on the right path, but may be missing something simple. 

I have attached a sketch of my model as described above, just to give you a visual of what I am talking about.

Daniel