ontinuing with my thankfulness journal. It’s day two.

And while this topic brings with it the normal riffraff of human relationships, when I think of these people, I truly love them. So much.

My siblings.

There are 8 of us; 2 deceased. We are a weird gang. I mean, truly, we’re kind of crazy. And I kind of love it. Most of the time anyway. (I promised honesty!)

First to mention, we are severely spread apart in age. When Carla was 21, my youngest sibling, Payton was born. We’re all biological siblings with the same parents. (I had never thought that was unusual until someone thought we must be half-siblings for there to be so many and to be so age-gapped.) Denise is the oldest, but she passed away. Then there’s Carla, Matthew, Megan, Blake (also deceased), me, Jordan, and Payton. I’m 6 years younger than Megan and 7 years older than Jordan so I kind of had every scope of the lineup, being the youngest for a while, an “only” for a while (when my siblings were all in school and I wasn’t, it seemed like I was an only child sometimes), the oldest for a while (after my older siblings moved out, married, and it was just me and my two younger brothers), and now, the middle.

Our clan has grown, and not just in height. (Though you can see the boys got all the height genes. The girls not so much.) We have 4 in-laws and 8 nieces/nephews, plus two more nieces that my brother-in-law brought with him to our family. We are so blessed!

We are spread apart geographically as well; most of us in Iowa, but both of my sisters live in Ohio–and I am not thankful that we’re so far away! We are all growing into our own careers and families, and, in the most non-pitying way of all, I feel badly for people who don’t have the family I have. I know we’re not perfect–in fact, not by a long stretch–but we are, in a word, “stuck” with each other for life.

And if I were to be stuck with anyone, I’m truly thankful it’s with these people.

Related: Day 1