Family.

A word that is typically synonymous with blood relation or shared last names. However, in the last two years, my definition of family has completely changed. Rather, I have come to understand it as a group of people that choose to live every day of life together; for good or for bad, for better or for worse.

We live in a world where "community" is often talked about but rarely lived. To do so would compromise the freedom of privacy and the comfortableness of shutting your door when you just can't take the outside world anymore. However, I've watched one family do just that every single day that I've known them.

It started with Katy and Tony choosing to challenge the norm of what a typical American household looks like. They bought a home and opened it up far beyond their immediate family. And although we each live in separate "houses" - Josh and Nick in the basement, Katy, Tony, Mia and Jax on the main floor and myself above the garage- we are all connected by a joined courtyard and a sliding glass door to Katy and Tony's kitchen that is always open. When they opened up their home to us, they truly opened up their family and their life.

However romanticized that may sound, the reality of what that means, is a shared washer and dryer between five adults and two kids and more missing socks than you could possibly imagine. It means a house that can rarely be kept clean but rather is always trampled with new footprints and stories. It means more dirty dishes than would normally appear, and coffee mugs that find their way into each others cupboards. It means a kitchen that doesn't get walked by without a quick stop in and conversations that typically start in passing and last far into the night.

The reality is, Katy and Tony have opened up their home more than any of us have. We each have a place to resort to, to lock the door and disappear, but theirs is the door that is always open. And their home is not just open to us that live there, but rather, the place that we all congregate. It is the gathering spot of Friday night bike rides, Sunday night dinners, random dance parties, Zumba marathons, fire pits, and stories that you couldn't write if you tried.

It has been crazy living life next to an early 20's seminary student, a married couple with kids and a justice seeking Ohioan. We have walked through more of life together than I'm sure we ever intended to. Their kids have been privy to details of our lives and asked us questions that we would never ask ourselves. We have wrestled through dreams beginning and dreams ending. We have locked the doors when we wanted to disappear, and had those same doors knocked in when disappearing was not an option. I have spent nights laughing so hard I couldn't breathe and other nights I have considered rappelling off of my balcony to get away without anyone seeing me. "Community" is not always easy, but it's worth it.

We have saved each others lives, wrecked each others cars, and risked our lives together. We have struggled through different languages and cultures, built homes together in foreign countries and delivered babies here. We have picked up each other's slack, been in each others way, laughed at each others failures, praised one another's accomplishments, and thrown food at each other. We have called each other out, taken care of one another, been furious with each other and run to and from one another.

This family begins here and stretches out further than any of us realize. It has taught me what life and relationships are truly about. It has broken ties that would originally bind us and created even messier ones in their place. I have always dreamed of being a part of something bigger than myself. For these last few years, and for this family, whatever it is and whatever it will become, I am ridiculously grateful. People try all the time to put their finger on the way we live and figure us out. Im not sure that I can help them. All I know is this...

We are a mother, a father, a photographer, a power lifter, a missionary, a dj, a world traveler, a seminary student, a sports fanatic, a midwife, a dreamer, a pirate and a dancer. We are out of our minds and completely sane. We are the core of something that is so much bigger than ourselves.

We are Family.