I Love Our Family—Including all of the Members Not Pictured

"There are members of our family that we don't see anymore..." My son looked at me mid-Pringle with this deep thought and went on to list foster brothers and sisters and cousins who've come and gone. Who we don't see, but who will always be members of our family.

Foster care and adoption change and shift, widen and broaden the definition of family. It forever alters the simplicity of the core family unit. There's a whole web of people who are related to us and connected to us, who we've changed and been changed by. There are the kids who've left and the ones who've stayed. And there are all of their former and current and biological and extended families.

I could resent that my simple picture of what family "should" be has been wrecked. But I choose to see that the blurry edges create a more beautiful picture. That the open ends and the added faces only add to the unique design. Our experience of the fullness of family has expanded right along with the definition of it.

I love our family—including all of the members not pictured.