my family:)

This is our sand box.  Not what would come to one's mind when you think of a sand box.  This is the one thing I would I would grab if our house burnt down (right after the people and animals).  This is our family's love letter.  This was part of our wedding.  

"Now we will celebrate the creation of a family.  The three vials of sand here represent Michael, georgette, and Gabrielle.  As each pours in the sands, they show how the individual colors create a beautiful masterpiece of love and mutual respect.  Just as the sands are forever intermixed, so are the lives of the people being celebrated today.  As we join this couple in marriage, we are also reminded of the significant role that gabrielle plays in this marriage.  Today, a new unified life is share within this family.  May this marriage and family be harmonious and blessed from this day forward without end." 

Mike Baker said those words as we poured the sand in.  Mike was silver.  I was green.  Gabrielle was pink.  You can see all of us represented but you can't separate the colors completely apart.  Just like you can't separate us. 

When Mike and I became serious.  I told him that she already has a dad.  She doesn't need a step-dad.  All she needs is a positive role model in her life.  Mike said (and I quote because I memorized it), "I don't want to replace her dad.  I want to be the step-dad she deserves to have everyday."  I knew that moment I was going to marry him.  He has never tried to replace gabrielle's biological dad.  He has just tried to be her everyday step-dad.  That's how this family works.  We are inseparable in love.  I wouldn't have it any other way.