Family means a lot of different things to different people and to be honest, that is pretty cool. Personally I thought family would be me and my eldest. Eating Aldi potatoes au gratin, dusted lemon sole and a bag of microwave veg forever. Then I met Manbeast. That isn’t his name, just in case you are wondering. His name is Vietnamese and almost everyone says it wrong. Even me. Anyway, I digress. So yeah, we met online!!
That is what he looked like. It was a while ago. Now he is all hairy and stuff. Anyway. I had my Eldest already. We had a routine, house, garden, dog and a life. It was a nice life. I like it. But I met this person and we talked all night for days. Then he flew over. Really. From Holland. And we went to the Sealife center in Birmingham. It was great but he had to go, he had work. So he flew over a few more times, I flew to him, and eventually me and Eldest moved to Holland! It was turbulent, I am not going to lie. Not for us, we were okay our little unit.
Eldest enjoyed the winter in The Netherlands, the snow, the cold and the pancakes. What is not to love?!
Things changed and I needed to move home. So I did. He followed. Things weren’t great, it was a difficult time. They miss that bit out in the love stories, it’s hard. It can be a struggle to push on. We did. One day he turned up after his work, wearing a suit and ordered a box of Chinese food, put on a movie and never left. Perfect.
A little while later…
Middle Kid happened. She was great. Now we have two! I have posted previously about some of the things people said to me about having a mixed race baby. It is something we still get now. We are over it, the girls don’t see colour they just see sisters.
A little while after it happened again!
Some of you might remember that photo, it was less than an hour after the birthday of our third daughter – me and Kate Middleton have a lot in common.
So now we have three of them. They are all different. From the colour of their skin, the shape of their eyes, their hair and personalities.
Family to me is something you build. You take great care picking the right pieces, and in the case of your children adding the right amount of chaos to your clam. Much like any project Family keeps going. You start from tiny socks and hats to big dreams and supporting them through more than you can imagine. Family means trying to find the good in as much as possible and pulling each other through the darker times. Family is holding hands when the rain pours and sharing one umbrella between 5 of you. Family is managing to cut one tiny square of chocolate into five pieces. Family is the warm feeling when you walk in from the cold.
Family is the best project you’ll ever start and the one you will never finish.
P.S I need to buy bigger bags of veg now, 2 packs of potatoes and extra sole.
This post is an entry to Mumsnet #MatalanModernFamilies linky.
