The family you choose

Yesterday would have been my mum's 60th birthday. I spent most of the day feeling somewhat flat about the whole thing. She should have spent the day hanging out with her granddaughter and drinking champagne. Instead, E and I were hanging out at home and she didn't really understand why I was upset. It's fair enough.

Anyhow, although my biological family is aging and slowly depleting, I did spend some of my day reflecting on the ways in which my family has grown over the last few years as I looked over photographs of Dorothy's baptism last weekend.

Amazing cake from Dorothy's other Godmother
Follow her! @_CupKate

Of course I now have a wonderfully devoted husband and a delightful daughter. And the three of us are set to become four. I still have a few relatives left on my side of the family, and D's family is huge in comparison. But there are some other people, who while not official on paper are also part of my wider family and I am incredibly grateful for them.

They come in the form of my two best girl friends. They are E's Godmothers, and I am honoured enough to be a Godmother to two of their children too. And thankfully, I also approve of think the world of their husbands, and their husbands are incredibly good friends with my husband. Family that all love each other! Hurrah!

One of them is like my older sister. We spend more time shouting at each other, falling out and making up than we do talking (OK, that's an over exaggeration...) but she's absolutely irreplaceable. The other started as a colleague when I was an NQT and then she was made redundant and my contract wasn't renewed we moved in opposite directions but kept in touch and now a day doesn't go by when we don't speak. Thank god for these two girls for keeping me sane and standing by me when things have been tough.

And although both of them live as pretty much as south as you can get and we're positively central here in the East Midlands, we plan months ahead to make sure we get together in some shape of form. I think that's testament to excellent friendships.

E's responsibles - photo courtesy of P. Rogers

My family might not be all that conventional; in fact it's anything but...

I wouldn't have it any other way.