Owed To The Forbes

Family is defined as descendants of a common relative. But what do we do when there is no connection there? Those who share our genetics do not share our hearts. How can that gaping hole be filled?

In these cases, we are blessed with the gift of the chosen family. These are the people who choose to love and support us. They are not obligated to care or connect. They chose to do it. They want to do it. These are the friends who just appear when needed, love without expectations, and wipe away the tears of a broken heart because they see your pain and share it. They share it by choice because they share that piece of your heart that your genetic connections are missing out on.

For the lucky few, family is forever and always. But for the vast majority, family offers no guarantee, no promise of comfort or support, and sometimes no love. But the powers that be seem to step in and provide the missing pieces just when we think there is no hope. Your true family finds you. And they provide that feeling of home, that place of refuge, that unfaltering love that each of us needs and deserves.

Family, given, found, created, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the love that is shared, the support, the caring, and the knowledge that you are never alone because you have family.

It takes a special person to open their heart and their family to another. These people are true blessings as they live the lessons taught by their parents.

Nan,

Wherever you might be, looking down on all of us and everything going on in the world, I know that you are proud of the children you raised. You are proud of the adults that they have become, and the love that they share. And thanks to all that you taught them, they have added one more. Just as you did, they adopted “your boy” when he needed them the most. They are the light that has helped him find his way out of the darkness and back on his path to change the world! Thank you for the remarkable legacy of your family.