Family is More Than Blood

Family is more than blood. Family starts with choosing.

I think family is a choice. Family is the choice to look at your husband or wife every day and choose them. Family is a decision to when your stomach flutters with life to say I choose them. Family is a moment of deciding that these people are worth the risk, the time, the space, the fight and that you'll choose them.

And sometimes those we choose, we see from far away or even up close, and we make a decision to choose them. Maybe through adoption, maybe through guardianship, maybe through fostering; we see them and we choose them. The challenges are different, but the love is the same.

Whether you've parented a little one from the moment they first moved in your womb or you've seen an image of them and fought tirelessly to see them come home, the beauty is the same. You chose them once and every day, it will be another opportunity to choose them again.

And so what does that look like? What does it look like to choose people? To choose our kids? It looks like eye contact, long hugs, snuggling, time that has no limit. It looks like speaking words of truth, reminding them of their greatness, pulling out their gifts and saying, "I see you." It looks like giving wisdom, talks into the night, laughter that seems to go on for miles and the intentional way of seeing them as the reward that far outweighs the risk.