Statement: I’ve got to confess: I cheated on this homework assignment. Ya know, it was a bit harder than I thought, so I asked my kids for some help. First I asked my ten year old son Sawyer, “What exactly is a family?” After working through all the permutations of siblings and parents and stuff, he concluded that a family is a group of people who live together and do stuff together and love each other. Yeah, thanks, perfect answer, I told him as I wrote down his words.

Since I was already bending the rules, I turned to Matt, my eleven-year-old step-son. “Hey, Matt, what makes our family special?” Pausing for only a moment, Matt shared, “well, we respect each other and we try hard to communicate and understand each other.” Great! This is an easier task than I thought.

I’m now incorrigible. “Hey, Michael,” I yelled upstairs to my eight-year-old step-son, “do you think that our family is cool?” “Yeah,” he responded quickly, “we’re a nice family, we’re a fun family and we love our cats.” Yeah, that’s really good!

Oh, just a little background: We’ve been a family now for just over six months. Maddie and Sawyer’s mom died when they were eight and four respectively. Matt and Michael’s mom and dad divorced when they were three and a new born. Despite these experiences, some health concerns and a myriad of other life challenges, these guys know what it’s like to feel conspicuous and then later discover that they are whole and amazing people. What’s more they know that EVERY child is whole and amazing, and that EVERY family loves each other.

Lansing, Michigan

Produced byAtticus Circle and Soulforce

Produced by
Atticus Circle and Soulforce