By Thom McKee

We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘Blood is thicker than water,’ as a reference to family and its importance. But what is family?

Is it only those in our lives related to us by blood? Or step out further than that – by marriage? Can family exist beyond these bloodlines or marital ties?

I’ve known many people in my life who aren’t close to any “blood” relatives, and whose marriages have ended in breakup or serious dysfunction. I’ve also known people whose loyalties to their “family” have been disrupted and shattered by sexual and physical abuse. What did family mean to my friend’s dad who lost his entire blood family in the Holocaust and was adopted by a loving set of strangers? Or my friend in Africa who is raising a girl as his own daughter whose biological parents died of AIDS?