What Makes a Family

What makes a family?  Is it bloodlines?  Is it love?  Is it created only in the traditional sense?  Or is it all of that plus so much more?  Throughout society we see many types of families.  Single moms, single dads, combined families, military families, families with two working parents and those with a stay-at-home parent.

I have come to reevaluate my own ideas of what a family is during this journey of ours.  I had always thought that family is more than just bloodlines but I had not fully understood how much more.  I am able to count so many people as family,  including those related to me by blood, those that married into the family and all my wonderful friends.  Now, as we walk this path to parenthood, I have come to realize that my family will expand in ways I had not ever imagined before.

We will be adopting a whole new family, not just a baby.  At times, the enormity of that aspect of adoption scares me and I wonder if I am ready for that.  Our lives, our hearts, our souls, are being opened up and placed on the table to be viewed and evaluated by complete strangers.  We will adding people to our lives that we know nothing about.  But, as much as it scares me, it also makes me grateful for the opportunity to grow.

Family now means more than those connected to me by blood, more than my friends, more than just those I love.  Family now means those connected through adoption as well, not just the children we adopt, but their blood family also.  Total stranger now, but ones that will become a part of our lives and will hold a special place in our hearts and be a part of us forever.

I am grateful that God placed us on this path, that He showed us the way to adoption.  He has opened my eyes and my heart to this amazing gift and I will never be the same.  Yes, it is scary, it is nerve wracking, it is a long and difficult journey.  But I know that it will be worth everything in the end.  There is a wonderful verse that reminds me we are all also adopted by God through Jesus.
He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. Ephesians 1:5


That kind of love is amazing and when I think that He has blessed me enough to have me on the path of adoption, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.  This gift is one that I could never have imagined as a child and one I do not deserve.  But God somehow loves me enough to have given it to me.  To have shown me the way to love and family that challenges me and fulfills me in ways I never knew were possible.

So, what makes a family?  Family is all inclusive, bloodlines,friends, traditional families, and adoptive families.  What makes a family?  Love.  I am more excited then ever to start my family through adoption and thankful that God is guiding our path.  The wait is hard, but it will end in Gods time.