If anyone were to wash my mouth out with soap and I were to still love them minutes, days, months, and years later, it would only be you.
To think back on my life is to think of you - always right there, always on the trip where we laughed the most, always there at the celebrations, the ones big and the ones small, always there when the ground begins to crack, when the news is too much for one soul to bare alone. Always there.
I always complain that our family feels so small - with few of us still left here breathing, how could it not? But sometimes I forget to count the other four members of our family - the ones that know us each inside and out and love us despite. The ones that would travel across the world if we asked, the ones that send the birthday cards and call during their drives home through traffic, the ones that know how we each like our drinks and know our bedtime is a prompt old lady time of around nine pm or so. The ones that are you four, that ones that have always been there.
I love you as my family. I always have and I always will, and should I ever find myself thinking we're alone, all I have to do is think of you - the one that loves me enough to wash my mouth out with soap (don't deny it, you know you did it).
Thank you for being our family. Thank you for always being there and here and wherever it is we may need you next. Thank you for loving each of us with such heart and sacrifice and loyalty. How lucky are we?
Thank you & I love you.