Meaning of Family

Tonight my inlaw's and Damian and I saw a really good movie called The Blind Side and it was one of the best movies that I have seen in a LONG time. What I loved about it though was that a big black boy was adopted by a white wealthy upper class family who took him in when he had no where to go and when he was the ONLY black boy in a Christian private school they stood their ground and insisted that they were his family. This got me thinking a lot...true family is the family we were born into but I also think it can have a broader meaning. For example people who adopt and foster children and REALLY love them they become family although they don't share flesh and blood. My in laws are family to me they welcome me with loving arms into their home and their lives and I only know them because I married their son and their brother etc. Even dear friends of mine have become like family to me. We share a tight close bond and have laughed, cried and rejoiced together as well as shared all types of sorrows. I think that sometimes people get so caught up in the idea that their family just has to be the ones in their immediate circle that they don't get that it can mean so much more. I have lots of "family" and I love them all. I have the family I have been born into and all their branches who have nourished me since birth. Damian and I became a family the day we got married for time and eternity in the Spokane Temple. Damian's folks and siblings and their kids became my family the day I married them and we are all connected to one another. My dear friends became family when our friendship was put to the real test and we REALLY needed to be there for one another and they pulled through for me as I did for them. As a result of my large "family" I feel happy, content, loved and supported and I feel at peace with myself and the world around me and I think that is what being part of a family means and why they are so important so much so that I really don't think it matters all that much what or who your family is comprised of.