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But when I arrived in the dusty desert of the Middle East, I realized that family isn't defined by proximity. You can create a family, a different family, wherever you are. And that family provides support and drama at all the right times.
The first journey we took, we called ourselves The Traveling Marshalls. We defined ourselves as a couple learning about the world, one country at a time. Our goal was to travel the world and never look back.
Two years into our stay in Jordan and we were totally changed. We were learning about family honor, about unconditional love (and unconditional beauty). We began to define family by a close group of incredible friends and acquaintances, people that to this day, still make positive impressions on our lives.
It all changed the day Potato was born. All of a sudden, we were three, instead of two. We had to rely on each other to stay together. Our extended family included nurses at the hospital in Israel where Potato lived for the first 5 months of his life. Even in a different country, though, the concept of family didn't change.
Our journey will never stop. We will continue to define family, even though our definition now includes scars, work, and special needs. Working and trying to parenting a kid with special needs is not always easy, but is a reward every day.
Sometimes, I write about how being a mother sucks.
Sometimes, I remember where we were and it keeps me laughing.
And here are our favorite posts of this year (so far):
Medaling in Yadda, Yadda, Yadda
Traveling Marshalls and the Case of the One-Eyed Monkey
Potato and the Flat Screen Plasma
Our journey will continue across continents and foreign lands. But family will never go away. We will just define it differently.
