We are family!

Family is described in the dictionary as; a group of people connected by blood or marriage and sharing common ancestry. My siblings and I grew up in a small town for the majority of our childhood. I have a fairly large family. I am the youngest of eight children. Not including the five step siblings we now have from my Dad's wonderful marriage. That brings the grand total to thirteen. I know...huge! I must say that the hardest thing about growing older is that we all can't live with eachother anymore. I reminisce often about the times when we were younger. The games, the holidays, the birthdays, the fights, the laughter, the trouble we got into together, the good times and the bad times. But, although I miss those days and wish we could sometimes go back and all be together in our innocence again, I wouldn't trade it for where we all are today. We are all grown up now. We have our own families. Some of us even have grandchildren. Some of us have been divorced. Some of us have never married. Some of us have been married a long time. Some of us have lived far and some of us have lived near to eachother. We have lost love together and gained it back again. Some of us have found success and some of us are still reaching for it. We have mourned the loss of our mother, grandparents and great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins together. We have rejoiced in the birth of a new child and a new marriage. We have supported eachother through things that many people would turn their back on. We have given support through the fight with breast cancer, cervical cancer, lymphoma, leukemia, hepatitits C, drugs, alcohol and miscarriage. We have lended an ear and given advice. When one of us are weak, the others are strong. We have had our times of laughter and hugs, and others with bickering and crying. Words have gone unspoken and words have broken eachother's hearts. But, one thing still remains...our love for one another. We are family. Our parents were not wealthy and we will not inherit riches and fortune. But, the one thing they've given to all of us is love. They taught us all from an early age to love. They taught us that God is love. They taught us that love can see its way through any pain or strife and is in the midst of everything good. And in return we have learned to give it to one another, through the good and the bad. I would say that our sharing of "ancestry" goes way back to before we were even on this earth together. It started with the love that God showed to all of us. God is the creator of family. He loved us all enough to send his only Son for us to be free, and because of that love, we can love eachother. I am honored to have the family I have, disfunction and all. Thank God today for the family that you have, he created them all just for you. I Corinthians 13:4-8, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."