Offspring of kkdonk is a senior in high school this year. And he is awesome and wonderful (as only a mother can say) and has a path and a maybe major (your own KK was premed, then English major, into pension (good lord, math!) field, mid-life crisis MLS pursuit, so I am not locking him in at this juncture). Despite my parenting, he is a good egg.
We had one of our … probably almost final family vacations this January. We went to a very warm island, while our home was very cold. We did very warm island stuff. Drinking age is 18 so we enjoyed watching him order “adult drinks” and at laughed at his liking of rum punch. We played escape room card games and Yahtzee (family favorite… you should explore this) in the evenings.
I had a moment of “holy cats this is it”, just a moment but enough to rattle me. He has been a constant in my life for 19+ years (counting the womb part, which I do), he has bounced back from some life forks and is one of the more empathetic people I have ever met. He reminds me of the very good qualities in my mom and has procrastination qualities that I swear, he was my cousin’s child.
And yet as we sat on that snorkel boat, my husband, me and the child and our legs all touched as we got ready to get off the boat and snorkel… I was hit harder than a plank to the face about family.
My parents’ divorce when I was 11, to a lot of people at that point, I no longer had a family. (I, today, wish an itchy pox on the loins of those people, but moving forward). When I had my offspring, a multitude of people thought that this could not be a family unless another offspring was had (did I mention itchy pox?) :eyeroll: maybe it is age, maybe it is patience… but my family today… IS my family. It consist of me (the amazing kkdonk), my patient, wonderful, prom date long ago husband, and my bearded offspring. DNA bonds us to some degree, but nature does more, in my opinion. Family comes in many, many forms and don’t let anyone ever EVER tell you whatever the make-up of what yours is not a family. It is. It is your family. Embrace it.
kkdonk 