Pretty Nice Epiphany....

I have come to realize every single day I learn something. It may not be something huge but it's something. And I may take this for granted more often than not...but tonight I have a sense of gratitude for so much in my life.

This past week our little family took our first real trip together. Mr. Big Dog and I got married a year and a half ago....and met about a year and a half before that as you remember. But I had never been to his hometown with him and he had not been to mine....until recently. 

We went to Alaska. Big, Giant, Huge, Wild, Beautiful Alaska. I got to see his childhood home, which his parents still live in. I got to meet friends who really are family to him. I got to share my son with tons of people as well as watch him get spoiled from sun up to sun down by his grandparents. 

And all in all I really just sat on the sidelines and tried to take it all in. I looked at baby pictures of my husband, listened to him reminisce about how he grew up and became the man who I now share a home with. The times he got into trouble, the times he won awards, and a lot of the memories he made in Alaska.  I watched his parents play and love on our son, just taking time to really get to know him with what time we all had together on this visit. 

And through all of this, I started to think about how taking Mr. Big Dog's last name did not necessarily mean his parents had to love me or really even try to get to know me. 

Mr. Big Dog and my relationship developed and evolved at freight train speed and the distance between Vancouver, Washington and Alaska is not exactly close. It has been a conscious decision to really get to know each other.....myself with his parents and vice versa. 

And I guess I really came to feel this past week that his parents have welcomed me into their lives so lovingly.....when they really didn't have to. They have put in hours of effort to get to know me with trips to Portland, phone calls, emails, and with our new technology... sometimes Skype. It just hit me with an overwhelming gush that they really do consider me family. I am now part of their family. Not just with a last name, but with the way we are around each other. It's just becoming more and more comfortable like a nice pair of jeans. And I mean that in the most respectful loving way. Not brand new where you have to suck in your gut, but they are starting to fit better and be a little more relaxed.
Maybe it's from becoming a parent recently myself.....but our relationship just made me realize how much they love Mr. Big Dog. And of course I share that love.  And when you love someone so much you put in effort and work on things that are an important part of them.....like developing relationships with certain people.
So tonight I am grateful for my father and mother in law, who I continue to get to know visit by visit. But tonight I also feel like I understand at a much deeper level what it is to love a child throughout his/her life....and into adulthood.
I am thankful for their love and support. I am thankful for the effort they put into everything they do for us.
Our trip was amazing in many deeper than you'll ever know kinda ways;)