Life Lessons

I am pretty fourtunate to have the family I have. We all love each other and get along beautifully through thick and thin. In fact, when I was younger, I didn't realize that every family wasn't as close as mine. When I talk about family, I'm not only talking about my mom, dad and two brothers...I'm talking about my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. My mom and her sister are like the same person...I can go to either one of them with ANYTHING. My cousin Keri Lynn is like my sister...in fact, I used to call her my sister to save confusion. My other cousins are like my brothers, my other aunt and uncle are like parents, etc, etc.

We were aloways raised to honor and respect our family, and to value the time we have together. My family has been through some rough times, including two unexpected and one somewhat expected, though still difficult, deaths of family members. We were raised to share our emotions. When we were upset, we did not hide our feelings or talk about them behind each others backs. We straight up told each other what was going on, and we talked it out. I could only imagine how miserable it would be to not be able to share emotions.

When my brother got married 6 months before I did, we accepted his wife into our family with open arms. I was SO excited to finally have a sister-in-law. When my other brother brought his girlfriend over the first time, we accepted her into our family with open arms. I consider her to be my sister as well, though she isn't a "technical" member of the family at this point (she will be SOON!) When Brandon and I got married, my family adopted him in as another son, when my cousin got married, we adopted his wife in as another daughter...regardless of education level, looks, past experieinces, their family life, religion, what have you. We are accepting people.

I have come to realize over the past month that not everyone is so accepting. Not everyone likes mine and Brandon's relationship and how we have worked out our household. Not everyone thinks we should be having children. Not everyone likes me, my career choices, or my family ties. And on top of that, these "accusations" are based on NOTHING. Some people think they know everything. AND these are people I just can't be around. Some people think they know me, and they know nothing about me. I cant be around that either. And I have also learned that misery loves company. ANd I can't live my life so miserably. I am happy. Brandon is happy. Our dogs are happy. And our future babies will be VERY happy. And I don't need these people dragging me down.


*deep breath* And Scene.