Post #2 - Family

Post #2 – Family

Family means a lot of different things to different people.  For some, family means those that raised you and invested their time in your life to teach you what you needed to learn.  For others, family means those that are directly related to you by blood.  For me personally, I feel that family can mean both at the same time.  I have blood family that I will always have, and then I have close friends that are more like family than friends.  I also have adopted family that have taken me in when I needed help, and they took me under their wings and took care of me.  The best part about family is not who makes up that family, but what they are wanting for your life.  My blood family has always been there for me.  I know that I can always call them for help or just to talk about what is going on.  My adopted family is there for me when my blood family can’t be.  I know that they are not my true family, but they have invested time and effort into how I turned out, and that means a lot to me.  Another aspect of life that I didn’t know about until I was 14 years old is called a step-family.  I never fully understood what it means to be a step parent, or to have a step parent.  I finally came to that realization last summer when I became a step parent to a wonderful 5 year old boy.  I found out that the term step parent doesn’t truly exist.  It’s only a legal term.  I found out that when a person becomes a step parent, the child or children involved don’t think of that person as a step parent, they think of them as either mom or dad.  You don’t just become a step parent on paper, you have to put the time and effort into those children just as you would if they were your own kids.  That’s what happened with my childhood, and I was very thankful for the man that stepped up to raise me when he didn’t have to.  I still call that man my dad.