The Ordinary Family

I almost missed one of the most important opportunities of my life.  I was concerned about having an ordinary family and I was worried that adopting Lily would make us out of the ordinary.  Fortunately, I have a husband who is comfortable telling me when I am thinking crazy.  Together we made the right decision.  A decision which will change my life forever...and in every way for the better.
What is the ordinary family anyway?  Is it 2.5 kids and a dog?  Who wants 1/2 a kid anyway?  And what about us cat lovers? If you take a moment to look around, these days every family can be called ordinary. Or, if it pleases you, out of the ordinary.  There are single parents.  There are grandparents raising their grandchildren.  There are gay and lesbian couples. There are interracial and interreligious families.   There are adopted kids from almost every country...Asian, Ethiopian, Haitian, Russian... And usually the families that would be considered "normal" have something going on that you don't even know about.
Family means a group of people who care more about each other than they do as an individual.    It is a group of people who are better people because they are together.  It doesn't matter what the "rules" are.  It only matters that you are meant to be together.
I once had a mom tell me that her family was not ordinary.  Her son is married to a girl of a different religion and different race, her daughter is married to a man of a different race, and her son has a stepson. She completely loves her family and didn't mean it at all in a mean way.  I thought that it was funny that she was telling me that they weren't ordinary because I was raised by a single parent and I have a daughter who is adopted and Inuit. Am I not the one that is out of the ordinary? At that moment I realized that we are all ordinary people living ordinary lives...our own lives.  
If you are ever faced with a decision and are worried because it might make you out of the ordinary, remember that it means you are extraordinary.  And everything is ordinary.