Video by Tell The Birds
I wanted to invite you all over to a night in our home.
We are crazy and messy, sassy and resilient, outspoken and full of life. We all lean on each other… a lot.
The kids are aware when I need extra encouragement, they know they have a place to talk openly with us about problems they are facing and feelings that they have, and at the end of the day, there is nowhere else I’d rather go home to. We experience every aspect of life… together.
Our story of how we all ended up together is different than most, but at the root of it all, we’re just like you.
Our roots are grounded in love.
We travel, love the park, have disagreements, do homework and drive to a million activities every week. We eat dinner together (which I burn half of the time) and loose our voices cheering and dance recitals and soccer games. We have piles of laundry and can never find matching socks, and a dog who we all treat as another family member (except Zoe, Zoe thinks he’s her boyfriend). We play UNO for hours, have 600 too many stuffed animals, and share a mutual love for sushi, walks, and movie nights.
We have trials that might stem from different things than yours do, but our family is a lot like yours.
Something that we talk about, that maybe is different than what you talk about, is that we all chose to become a family. It was not a placement that happened with birth, but a choice that we’ve all made to love each other and value one another. A choice to sacrifice and uplift, and to stick together especially when life gets rocky.
To me, family is the most important thing in my world and anything that can be done to strengthen those relationships is worth fighting for. We all can choose to protect and cherish the people who should matter most to us.
I’ve learned that love will compel a person to do things that they might not otherwise do.
My love for them has made me brave.
And I hope that I get to spend the rest of my life being brave for them.