it should go without saying that i hit the family lottery. i mean, we’re not the bravermans, but we come pretty darn close. over the years, my family has certainly grown and changed and metamorphosized into the makeup that it is today but i am especially thankful for its evolution. we may not be your standard colony that lives behind the white picket fence, but i wouldn’t change the members of my tribe for anything in the world.

i know we don’t get to choose who our parents are and what environment we are born into. i realize that not everyone’s family is a safe place for which they can grown and develop and explore and become. the older i get, the more i learn that what i have been given is a rarity. it is a true gift to look around the dinner table on thanksgiving and on christmas or at a function where generations have gathered together in celebration and fill completely full. to be thankful that you get to share a few branches of the family tree with these people and that even if you weren’t related by blood and chromosomes, you’d choose to do life with them anyway.

so today i am beyond thankful for my family. for every parent, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th cousin. for the excellent humans who have joined our brigade through marriage (lucky you) and for those who aren’t technically on the genealogy report, but who are so interwoven into the fabrics of our family make-up, they might as well be. i am so dang grateful to be a part of all of your lives.