Growing Branches

I grew up knowing that my Aunt Dale and Uncle Charlie were not "real" family. They were my parents' best friends, and thus became family by default. They loved us, as my parents loved their children and the fact that we didn't share a blood line was very inconsequential. I always wondered if I would ever have a friendship so deep, that the family tree would grow extra branches to accommodate it.
I met Janet the summer I was pregnant with Emily. I had just been married and was working at a facility for disabled children. I was assigned to be a 1:1 teacher to a severe and profound disabled boy named Russell. My duties were to adapt the regular program activities in a way that was meaningful to him. There was only one other child in our small group who was in a wheelchair. He was much higher functioning than Russell, but had cerebral palsy and was deaf. Although he could operate his wheelchair himself, he required a sign language interpreter at all times. Janet was hired to interpret for Chris two days a week.
It was a friendship that happened out of sheer necessity. The other employees in our small group were a couple of dim-witted, flirty college-kids. They knew everything about nothing, so it seemed, and tended to pay more attention to each other than the children we were charged to take care of. Janet and I quickly developed a camaraderie and it instantly seemed like we had known each other forever. With wheelchairs in tow, we always brought up the rear, talking about her upcoming wedding, or my impending childbirth, or music or college or whatever. We never had a moment of silence between the two of us. It was just so comfortable and easy.
When our stint at the center was done we had a dinner or two together before she was married in September and moved to Texas. We exchanged all the pertinent information to stay in touch and that was it. She was just a girl I knew for 2 days a week for 7 weeks. It was nice knowing her, but that was that.
I sent her an announcement when Emily was born and she sent me a gift. It was nice to have had a little contact, but mostly it was just a Christmas card here or there.
It was within a year or two that Janet and Jimmy moved back to Charlotte. They called us and we had them over for dinner. It was so nice to have reconnected. Slowly that connection got stronger and stronger. In 2001 Janet and I had babies "together." She always has said I got pregnant with Elizabeth so that her little Sarah would have a friend. It was soon after the birth of the girls that we began taking family trips together. I had Janet, Tucker and Jimmy were becoming great friends, and now our girls had each other.
It was somewhere along the way, and I'm not exactly sure where, that they became Aunt Janet and Uncle Jimmy. It is certainly not what I had ever expected when we were wheeling our little friends around the center that summer.
My kids have never known life without them and hopefully never will. Our tree, had indeed grown that special branch reserved for "chosen" members of the family.
We now live six hours apart. Somehow, though, the distance has only enhanced our relationship. We know that when we are together it is because both sides really wanted it to happen. When Tucker's mother died, none of my family made it down. Our dear friends made what amounted to a 12 hour trip so that they could be with us for 2 hours. During that week of sadness and heartache, nothing touched Tucker or I more than that act of love.
I am so very thankful to have these people in my life. We have seen each other through many a bumpy road, but have had our share of laughs along the way. There is an unspoken knowledge, among all of us, that we ARE family. Not the kind of family that grows out of years of lineage and DNA and genetics, but a family that is born out of the simple knowledge that we are loved.