What Makes a Family?

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about this question.  What makes a family?  Is it just blood?  Do we include friends?  What about all those step and half relations?  Where do we draw the line?  What's our criteria for claiming family? We we look at blood, I have a pretty small family.  But then start adding all the half and step and suddenly my family tree looks more like a family bush.  But do I really claim all those people?  There are definitely branches in there that I don't really keep in touch with.  There are branches that I wish I didn't keep in touch with.  And there are others that I love and see often.

But it's not just about who's related to me.  There's all those friends.  Some of who I would claim over many of my blood relatives.  Many of those friends are the ones that have been there for me.  Often they are the ones I turn to when everything gets too much.  They are here, not out of family loyalty, but because they want to be here.  It's a choice.  In many ways, that's more important to me.  I think the families of the 21st century are going to be by choice, not necessarily by blood.

My immediate family (the boys and myself) has been going through a lot lately.  We are living in a place of limbo.  We don't know what the future holds.  But I do know that I'm grateful that I have them.