Friday Five - We are Family

My friend Andy posted this Friday Five on her blog, and I thought I'd give it a shot...

1. What is your family story?

My family story is formed through adoption in two generations, bound together by love, laughter and loyalty, also a fair amount of craziness, with faith and togetherness seeing us through some dark and difficult times.

2. What is the story you want to tell about your family?

How family is not made solely through biological connections (after all, very few of us out there marry our blood relatives, just as an example...). Our family sticks together no matter what, loves each other no matter what, and opens our hearts to welcome in new members, regardless of how they came into our fold.

3. What is important to you as a family?

Supporting each other, laughing with each other, loving each other, forgiving each other. Being together. Putting up with each other when things aren't all sunshine and roses.

4. What is your experience of creating family?

Growing up, family meant new faces were always welcomed - from childhood friends to exchange students to those who might not have anywhere else to go for a holiday. There are often, to this day, new and different faces at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner... We hosted several exchange students when I was growing up, and are still close with them despite being separated by many thousands of miles. Once you're in the family, you're in for keeps.

When starting our own family, things didn't go the way Hubby and I pictured it would back when we were just starting out on the road to married life and parenthood. We'd always thought we'd have at least two kids and never really envisioned difficulties with getting and staying pregnant (who does?). We did our spin on the (in)fertility merry-go-round and decided we would pursue adoption rather than go the route of major medical intervention and potentially high-risk pregnancy. After all, I was adopted myself, so it just seemed the natural path for us to take. Nothing particularly remarkable or unique about that story, though our journey to parenthood through adoption wasn't without its drama. Now, we're raising Kiddo through an adoption that didn't quite work out the way we'd hoped, but life is always full of adjustments and we continue to do the best we can. Doesn't everyone? Kiddo is our daughter and the light of our life, and our hearts and dreams have adjusted to fit the picture of this family of three as complete. I am overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that I get to be Kiddo's mom each and every day.

5. What is the most important thing about your family?

We love and laugh and cry and scream and hope and dream together - through thick and thin, for better or worse, in sickness or in health, for richer or poorer (thanks, craptastic US economy!), loving and cherishing each other until death do us part. (Hmm, I seem to recall hearing and saying those words sometime before..........)


Anyone else want to join in this week's Friday Five? Please feel free - drop a comment here to point us to your answers, or just post 'em right there in the comments!