I think most of you know bits and pieces about my family story, but I feel that when you know someone’s family, you can really understand that person. So I want to tell you about my very special family. We are very unique in that our circumstances are rare, but our relationships are even rarer.
I grew up the youngest of 3. The baby of the family. My mom and dad had my two sisters, Alyssa and Amy, and then I came as the surprise (the very special, wanted surprise!!). At the time, my sisters were 14 and 10 and my momma was having a baby at 40 (sorry, Ma!). When I was around 12, my parents divorced and each remarried in the next couple years. With that, I gained two stepsisters, a brother-in-law, 2 step-nieces (Shelby and Taylor, my newborn assistants), and a bunch of extended family.
A few years later, my baby brother was born. My buddy Luke. With 17 years between us, I felt like a little mommy to him and we immediately had an unspoken connection like I’d never known before. He was slightly attached to my hip, but I didn’t mind. 
Then along came “Little Buddy,” Blake, when I was 19. He was a ham since the day he was born and we love his wild, hilarious quirkiness. So here we were, Blake the youngest and Alyssa the oldest at 33.
Next came my niece, Gracyn. I’m sure you all have seen her before a million times as she is the most photogenic little girl ever (I can’t help but take a million pictures of her!). My brothers became “little uncles” at 3 and 1. And now, Alyssa and Amy are both pregnant. Amy is due to have her surprise baby on March 29th and Alyssa is having a boy in May.
The crazy things about my family are not the obvious things. It’s that our family has so much love, despite the circumstances. I couldn’t be happier than when I have all my family in the same room. The kids don’t understand that it isn’t exactly the norm to have a niece a couple years younger, or that their sisters are old enough to be their mothers. They don’t know that most kids don’t scour the fridge and play games at their dad’s ex-wife’s house, or that my grandpa isn’t really theirs, too. When you take away all outside views of oddness, it’s a simple purity that remains. A bit of innocence. Just plain unconditional love. I feel so lucky to have the family I do.
