It all comes full circle

Today I was at the park with my sister and nephew out by the lake and I was watching her push her son on the swing and the breeze was blowing and my mind started to drift as it often does……the what if's and what could have been's (I know that's not a correct way of putting it but oh well its my blog ha-ha) started to wander around through my mind

I often wonder sometimes what life would have been like if all 6 of us kids would have had the chance to grow up together and had the chance to grow and bond as just "NORMAL" siblings do. Would we have been as dysfunctional of a group as we are now? I mean all 6 of us are by the same birth father but 3 of us came from 1 birth mother and the other 3 from another birth mother. There were 2 of us adopted by the same couple and raised for the rest of our lives while our full blood brother not knowing anything about ANY OF US was raised in a children's home and in and out of foster care until he was adopted at age of 16. Then there were 2 of us raised by our birth father and their mother. Our youngest brother came very much later in life….and by that time our birth father and his wife had split up so he was raised by his mother. Both our birth father and their mother died close to the same time so my sister fought for custody of our youngest brother and won (thank God) and raised him most of his life.

This is this first picture of all 6 of us kids ever taken together.

 
We argue, we fight, we disagree, we scream and yell but at the end of the day we love each other. Each of us have own battle scars from this thing called life. There are times we even go days and weeks without speaking to each other (dumb I know but I guess given our backgrounds we are doing pretty good) but let someone outside of our sibling family come up against one us its Katy bar the door!! We HAVE EACH OTHERS BACKS!!!! I guess this is why my mind often wanders if we had grown up together if things would have different for all of us? We are all fighters and strong willed and it causes us to clash. This however was the hand of cards we were dealt in this game of life and it has taught us all to stand.
                                                      
                                                      Im reminded of a country song by

 

GARY ALLAN LYRICS

 

Life aint always beautiful
Sometimes it's just plain hard
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart

Life aint always beautiful
You think you're on your way
And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day

But the struggles make you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has its own way of takin it's sweet time

[CHORUS]
No, life aint always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life aint always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride

Life aint always beautiful
Some days I miss your smile
I get tired of walkin all these lonely miles

And I wish for just one minute
I could see your pretty face
Guess I can dream, but life don't work that way

But the struggles make you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has its own way of takin it's sweet time

No, life aint always beautiful
But I know i'll be fine
Hey, life aint always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride
What a beautiful ride