gwenzilla | A most amazing family

Early Sunday morning, Emily and Andrew arrived to stay over after hanging out with friends in London. They came round about three in the morning; I didn't mind as I was up anyway, talking to a friend on Skype. We chatted for just a few minutes before everyone went to bed, but today, for multiple reasons, was really nice. In my long lj history, I've talked often about my blended family and what that means. I think it's safe to say that, in the ten years I've been in the UK, we've done an admirable job of growing closer as a family, supporting one another, and just generally staying friends.

My stepdaughters are a joy to me. Their partners are both thoughtful young men who have their best interests at heart and are part of our immediate family as surely as any of the rest of us, are. Their mum is someone I'm happy to call a friend and delighted to have at my house pretty much anytime. My son seems to be doing really well in California, judging from the fact that he's too busy to talk to me much. And when we do have time to talk, our conversations run the gamut. I am quite proud of him, even though he doesn't really understand why.

Today's long conversation with Emily and Andrew flowed from writing, to depression, to family history, to various fandom topics and round again to where it started and back to other things as well. They were planning to leave in the early afternoon and ended up staying for dinner. That made both Joe and me happy.

I don't talk often, here or on Facebook or anywhere else that I talk, about what a precious gift I have, this amazing family. It makes me feel humble and very very grateful for the life in which I have these seven people around me.

Many of you know that I'm a strong believer in the concept of the plural family. I tend to talk about this most when discussing polyamory, but our expanding nuclear organism is just as much of a wonder. Of course I invite many people into the family of my heart, but the family of my marriage and my son and these strong, talented, capable stepdaughters I have (who so often feel like the daughters of my heart if not my body,--and I hope their mum feels that way about my son as well). Their well-chosen, worthy partners make me even more proud of them, and each of their young men brings his own flavour of joy to the family table.

Spending the whole day in a revolving conversation with Andrew and Emily is just about the best Sunday I can imagine right now.