Sense of Family

I would be the first to admit my life is far from normal.
Nothing is simple.
No question  has a normal answer.

Take my family, for instance.
Yes, I have a mother and father.
But neither of them should have been allowed near children!
They had no concept of what to do with a child.
Much less, a less than normal me!

My one grandmother was more my mother than my real one.
In fact, my great-aunt I would have loved to have had as my only mother!

I was beyond any affection for my weird parents by age 9.
I was only a captive, held by violent insane people!
When I was forced to come to America at 13, I was literally under house arrest, MPs and all!
I left home from 15 through 18 as often as I could save up enough to run.
I just could not take that atmosphere of hate!
Of course the cops constantly would haul me back.
Sigh .....
But once at 18, I just sat on my tongue and waited.
At graduation from high school, plus one day, I was in Seattle.
There were no tears.

As the saying goes, "No man is an island ..."
Nor was I.
I really need a family.
Need one for decade!
I was eaten by loneliness.
I got my grandmother out of holding in California, but she was no longer the same.
Sigh
So I started the long process of building an ersatz family. (German for fake)

Back home, I had two brothers and two sisters.
I found that I clicked with Swede and Dutchman almost instantly at my uncle's church.
Later that fall I met Becky, a student from California, at a Bible study.
And Critter stumbled into our lives.
Again, an instant identity.
Well, two sisters and two brothers was good.
Though Critter was to run off a year later.
(But, the rest of us are still a group 45 years later!)
We very much were family.

It was several decades until I found a pseudo mother and father.
I was now had what I needed emotionally, or stability wise.
And thankfully they all stayed with me after I picked up four kids!
God chose wisely.

And this little story mirrors well, Psalms 68:6.

I was completely depleted by the time I reached Seattle.
My uncle and Grandmother I had placed my hopes in, completely failed me.
I really could not blame my grandmother.
She was very broken when I caught up with her.
But blood relations had failed me ...
And God built me a family, as I needed one.
And across time, that God appointed family has miraculously not failed me!

I think too much emphasis is placed upon "blood" relations.
Versus those whom we should have in our lives.
Helping or leaning on.

Those whom you turn to in times of trouble,
The place were you can rest.
Your true family ....