How many siblings do you have?

Simple question.

When getting to know someone this question often comes up.

They want to get to know your background, know where you came from, your family history.

This has always been an interesting question for me.

Coming from a multiple divorced family, my family can be extremely large.

When I first answer this question I say two brothers (Nathaniel and Zach) and one sister (Onna).

If I only went by blood, Onna is the only full blood sibling I have.

Zach is the one I have always been the closest with and we have no blood relation (I was adopted to his dad's side of the family and he was adopted to my mom's side of the family. So by law, we are brothers).

But there are people I am missing out of this group.

I have a half sister Rachel and half brother Zane from my biological dad's side of the family.

You can't miss Zane standing next to me, we look almost exactly alike.

Then from my mom being remarried, I have three older step brothers.

At one point I had another step sister too.

I am up to nine at this point.

The number could go as high as 14.

The one thing I don't have time to visit everyone.

I love spending time with all my family, there is just no way to do it all.

On top of that, it doesn't include my best friend Jason who honestly is like another brother and I count in my Facebook relatives as a brother.

When we take on the name of Christian this changes our view of people, we now have brothers and sisters in faith.

People there to stand by our side and are there if we ever need anything.

It's hard to try and meet with everyone.

Jesus has an interesting view on the family.

Matthew 12:50…

For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Jesus said this while his family was waiting on him while he spoke to a crowd.

It changes the view of the family.

We have a different family that comes into play.

Right now we live three hours from Jason after that the closest relative we have is five hours away.

We rely on our Church family to be there for us.

In Lansing, we had friends like the Sleights and Housepian's along with like 65 relatives that are awesome.

Whether they help us out financially or even more important, they are just there for us.

In Ionia, we were homesick for a long time feeling like we never did make a connection with people until Tonya Foster showed up to our house one day.

They were there for us the way nobody else was. Part of the reason I loved Ionia was because of her and her husband Cary.

We went on a vacation together and I would gladly call them our best friends from Ionia.

If they were needed anything, we have no problem dropping whatever we have going on to be there for them.

I have another group of friends that are like family. The seven percent club, I know no matter what happens they are there for us. They help us out no matter what the problem is.

If there is an emergency there are people we could drop our kids off if one of us got sick and had to go to the hospital.

They are there for us.

We got this feeling early with Terre Haute.

Hailee said this place feels like home before we even took the calling to come down here.

Jesus says whoever does my will…

This goes back to the greatest commandment when love is the foundation.

Love means that we are showing love to those who are close with us.

We love them so they love us right back.

Being far away from family requires this.

God does provide, in ways we never imagine.

How does God provide for you?

I thank God for the people he put in our life.

It's been amazing.

Have a great day.