Love is Thicker than Blood

I promised to be regular about updates on how I am doing. Well, this week was very roller coastery. I got well under 200, & then bounced back up because I had one really bad day. I'm having to be really good to try & get back to where I was. So yeah, no desire for that crap this week. Now moving on, today was the missionary homecoming of Chase Hessing. If you are so unfortunate as to not know this awesome kid, he is one of Barrett's best friends & the younger brother of one of mine. Amber & the girls met him...last week I think? & the girls already adore him so everyone but Dad was there to hear him speak. His sacrament meeting overlapped theirs so he couldn't come. Bummer, it was fantastic.

Mia sat on my lap the whole time, & Addison sat with Allie the first half & Mom the second half. As the wedding draws slowly closer, the weight of what Barrett is doing is really setting in. Not in a bad way, just a sort of "its finally happening!" Even though they only met four months ago, it seems like we've been waiting to have them officially be part of our family for, oh, ever. From the moment we met them they have just fit right into our family. Not like something was missing, but like we could be so much better with them. As it has at times before, today the rightness of the choices they have made struck me. I can't explain why the lives of Amber & the girls have taken this path. I really don't understand, except that I know the girls were meant to be who they are, when they are, & Barrett could not have been their biological father for that to happen. So somehow they had to come another way, & here they are.

I don't believe in destiny, or fate, or things being "meant to be". But this time, I believe they were meant to be ours. They just...fit. They look like us. They love us. We couldn't love them any more if they did share our genetics, & really, what does that have to do with anything anyway? They are ours, with all of our hearts. Barrett is their daddy. My parents are their grandparents. Addi told my mom today "I love you Grandma" & it was one of the best moments of her life. We are their aunts. We love them. We love being a part of their lives and spending all the time with them that we can. We love supporting them, going to Mia's soccer games or helping Addison not be afraid to swim. Grandpa & Grandma & Aunt Alane & Uncle Bart & Audrianna & JD & Aidan & everyone, our whole family is in love with them & feels so blessed to have them. They needed a family, & we are grateful that we were chosen to be that family.

My mom's dad isn't her biological dad either. As a child I really struggled with the idea that we were not sealed to him. The girls will not be officially sealed to Barrett. But the more I grow & learn, the more I come to understand how much God wants us to be happy. We are not trapped into being with whomever we may happen to be tied to. We are so loved, & he wants us to be surrounded by the people who love us for eternity. We have been promised those blessings, even if we can't understand now how they will come about. In thirteen days they will be a part of all of us forever, officially anyway, & that is all that matters. This song has always meant the world to me since the day I heard it, because all over in my family are adopted children, half-siblings, stepparents, all different pieces stitched together. But we love each other. And nothing could ever matter more than that.