Meet the Family

People are easier to hold at arm’s length until you can see their faces. That’s part of why I wanted this section here — not just names on a page, but a photo. Linda and Alfred. Sandy and Wylie. Peyton, Erik and Nick. The people who make up the “them” and “they” in the stories I tell.

It’s one thing to read about an adoptive mother, a foster father, a daughter caught somewhere in the middle of it all. It’s another to look at the actual pictures of us and realizing none of this was theoretical. These are the people who raised me, welcomed me, and grew up alongside me — often all at the same time, often in ways that didn’t fit neatly together.

I’m sharing this because I think it matters to see that a family can be built from more than one direction at once, and still be a family. Not a metaphor. Not a case study, just us on ordinary days.