‘Tis the season of giving and receiving. Yesterday our family welcomed the greatest gift of all, a new member to the family. My granddaughter is healthy and wonderful.
I now have four grandchildren. Three came as bonus gifts by marriage. I adore them all. They are intelligent, artistic, intuitive, and hardworking. The difference is more than blood. You see, the first three had a choice. The baby born yesterday will always know me as her Gramma. But the others choose to let me be their Gramma. They get to decide wlho I am in their lives. I respect that for them. It would not be wrong of them to choose otherwise. So I am honored by the gift.
I chose to be their Gramma. I, also, was under no obligation to be anything but their step-dad’s mother. But there was never a question for me that I would want to be more than that. I received the gift of three additional grandchildren. Blessings abound.
Family means a lot of things. It means blood. It means extension. It means acceptance. Having lived away from my own blood family for all of my adult life, formed family of friends is normal for me. Some of the people we were closest to are still in my life. Some are not. They were all special for a season. For family, no matter how it is formed, is the greatest gift. Value it, treasure it, extend it, appreciate it. When it is gone you will miss it. But it truly is better to love and lose, than never love at all.
For me, today is about being the best thing EVER, Gramma.
