We are on week 3 of the gratitude challenge, which means I am all caught up. Read week 1 and week 2 by clicking on those links. I have really only written two posts on the gratitude thing, but I can already tell that the topics of the week are coinciding eerily with my life. I fully intended to just write a small paragraph about each week but life keeps happening and making me think more and more about each prompt. This week the topic is family, and I thought about writing a post on friends who become family. I also thought about writing a post about mixing two families together. I even thought about writing a post on our fur babies, which are my immediate family. However, this morning we received news that changed all of that.
Today has just been a really long day. This morning everything that was going wrong was going wrong. I overslept, my coffee was burnt, the dog had gotten sick, and the garage door was broken. Then I got to work and a million people needed me at once. I was not feeling very grateful. At 8:30 am I looked down at my phone and my husband was calling me. That is when I heard the news, Darren’s Aunt Bossy lost her battle with cancer. Every little trivial thing from this morning didn’t even matter. All that mattered to me at that point was, how do I get to Darren (he is travelling for work) and how do we get him home.
Darren and I are the only ones in his family that do not live in central Iowa. Almost all of my family lives in Illinois (we have some Minnesota roots as well). Now with the move to Memphis, it is impossible to be able to drop everything and get home in one to two hours. While we live in Memphis, it isn’t home. Home for both of us is wherever our families are. One of the things that attracted me to Darren was how important family is to him. I just so happened to be really lucky that his family is wonderful.
Darren’s family is really close. They go on trips together, they celebrate Christmas every year with a big weekend party, they have numerous cookouts all year, they tailgate together, and they even go to each other’s high school games. Everyone knew everything about each other and they were constantly doing stuff together. Now my family is very similar we all love each other and do stuff together too, but my family is a bit more spread out than Darren’s. So, I honestly was a little intimidated when he introduced me to his family. I was worried that they wouldn’t like me or I wouldn’t fit in. Darren even added to the pressure by saying he couldn’t date me if his family didn’t approve (that’s how serious he is about family)! As soon as I met Aunt Bossy, I felt right at home. In fact as soon as I met all of his Aunts, Uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews, I felt welcomed.
That first time meeting everyone, they were all so open, honest, and genuine. I honestly feel like I just extended my family by dating Darren. I feel like I gained a shopping and drinking buddy in Aunt Mush. I gained another Viking fan with Grandpa. I gained another Uncle to tease with all 5 Uncles. I gained a no nonsense Mother in Law. I gained the best adviser and cook with Aunt Bossy. As I hung up the phone with my husband, I was crying. I looked out my office window though and there was a cardinal. If your family is always in your heart, then you are never that far away from home.
It feels weird to say this but I really am grateful today. I am just so grateful that I got to meet Aunt Bossy. I am so grateful to have extended my family through marriage. I am so grateful for the love my own family is showing to Darren’s family. This is all a reminder to me that no matter what family is always there. Darren’s family won’t be the same without Aunt Bossy but I know that we will still always feel her presence, laughter, orders, and love in our hearts.
