Keira-anne.com

“Keep it together in the family
They’re a reminder of your history
Brothers and sisters they hold the key
To your heart and your soul
Don’t forget that your family is gold”
- Madonna Ciccone

In 1980, my mom and dad had a kid. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was rather that Eric Forman and Donna Pinciotti had a kid.

I was my daddy’s little princess; his pride and joy.

This is my favourite photo of him and I.

Several years later, they had my brother, Trevor. It’s funny how, the older I get, the more difficult it is to remember such times. When I look at old pictures, the reminiscing comes easily. I can recall the games we used to play, the chocolate cakes that would be smushed on our faces at birthdays, the big paper maps we used to draw for his race cars and endless hours of building Lego houses while arguing whose structure was more deserving of the better pieces.

For some reason, I never could convince him to play Barbie with me.

We were, essentially, the nuclear family. By today’s standards, a family doesn’t consist of “mom, dad, two kids and a pet.” In my own standards, family doesn’t even mean people to whom you’re related by blood.

Throughout my teens, I lost a good portion of my blood-related family, including my Oma, Opa, paternal grandparents and my father. I’ve always had a few members of family on my father’s side, but truth be told, there was never a time in which any of us have been close with them, and it’s been well over a decade since contact was made.

As it stands today, my blood family is myself, my mom, my brother (who once was my little bro but is now most definitely my big brother) and my aunt. And in truth, my aunt is more of a surrogate mother herself than simply my mom’s sister.

Fortunately for all of us, the beauty doesn’t stop there. As I mentioned earlier, it isn’t relation by blood that defines someone as your family. Since long before I was in my mother’s womb, I was blessed with two phenomenal people who were not only my parents’ best friends, but as of December 2, 1980, also became two of my biggest cheerleaders. Jim, Dianne and their daughters have been more of a family to all of us than I could even ask for.

When I asked my mom for a blog post idea, she suggested I look at photos and perhaps an idea will spring up. With one quick look at my family set on Flickr, I decided to share with all of you what my family is. They aren’t necessarily the people who share my blood. They are the people who give love, support, encourage, forgive, understand, stand by and who allow me to return it all to them.

Yes, they are my mom, my aunt and my brother; however, they are also my friends and the people who have stood by me through all life has brought me. And what’s better, they are the people who will continue to stand by me through all that life has to bring.