Just had my brother over with his new girlfriend and it makes you wonder what makes families meld? What makes us stand up for each other? What make us decide that we are a family? Hard to tell, to be honest. Most of us come from the “nuclear family” and think that the rest of the population is just  a spin-off of a Jerry Springer episode. While the other 24% realize that there is more to the equation than we were brought up to believe. We all have a funky past, even if it was “normal” if you really get down to it. Did your parents meet in a bar? Were they highschool/ college sweethearts? That’s weird if you really think about it.

We go through life with the same people and think that that is “normal” . Then we may move , or go away to school,  and realize that there is so much more out there – and so many other people out there! Is that wrong? Not necessarily. I find myself wishing that I had that special history with my husband that we have the same highschool memories and college memories like other couples. Then I realize that there is more to the equation.

We come from different backgrounds, with different friends, and that makes us more willing to roll with the changes that life hands us (I hope) I know now that had I stayed with the other boyfriends from  highschool or college I may not have had the same life experiences that I have had so far. And for that I am more than glad.

I was looking at my life for the longterm and was not happy with the expectation 12 years ago – which is part of what lead us to Germany. I know now, that had I been a different kind of wife, our time in Germany would have been short and different. But I am not that woman, that wife. I embraced it, and suffered through it, and learned to love it. It made us stronger. It made me stonger.

Long story short (too late) I am glad that we took the challenge and we proved to ourselves that we were stronger than any outside forces. Not many couples get that opportunity – or survive it when they do.