I find it both very entertaining and interesting the morphism in the meaning of the word "family" as your life progresses. As a young child, its whomever you reside with as you are growing up. When asked by your kindergarten teacher to draw a picture of your family with your favorite crayons, these are the people who are lucky enough to make it onto that white sheet of paper. Usually this means, that in addition to the humans you live with it is also the cat, the dog, and the goldfish too.
As you grow and mature, while the core family unit remains the same, you begin to welcome many other people in and out of your family unit. Friends, classmates, boyfriends, girlfriends, a mentor, or a coworker. Then comes your ultimate family unit, the one your children will draw with their favorite crayons. However, just as recent as a year ago, my family drawing was much different than it is now. Derek and I have two cats whom we absolutely adore, and he and I along with these two spoiled furballs, we were a family.
Now my family also consists of someone who is not yet here. Still a few more weeks til we get to meet this little one, but it is profound how much this child is already impacting our life. All of those "families" that I had growing up did not play the same role as my new growing one. I easily made decisions that did not involve or require me having to think about their impact on my "family." Now every decision I make, I find myself taking the time to think about how my decision will impact my child. Amazing how just a year ago I would have never thought about a large decision impacting my cats, despite that they are family.
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