My Family As A Happy Family

I value my family so much. They don’t always do what I want them to do, but they always do what I need them to do. I would like to introduce you to some of the most favorite people in my life. First, my mom (Helen) and my dad (Terry). My parents are just so perfect and they have created a wonderful young lady. I wish I was the only child, but, I’m not. I have two siblings, both of my sisters are older than me and married with children. I have a sister on my

The past two years have been the hardest in all of my seventeen years of living. Choosing a topic is both easy and difficult due to how personal it may become. However, the highlight of the past two years belongs to my family life, and the actions of a certain former member that has affected the lives of many in my family. This person was in my life for over a decade up until around May of 2016, where the year truly kicked off for the family.

My family was and is still very important in my life. Sometimes I would become melancholy when I think about how far apart I am from them. On the other hand, I do become enlightened when I think about how both sides of my families are close when I visit them in Missouri. As a child, never really had a birthday party or received a lot of presents, but when my family comes during my birthday, I feel like I’m receiving hundreds of presents. My family makes me feel safe and secure when I’m feeling down.

My twin brother, Daniel, and I were born and raised in Mexico. The addition of us meant that our immediate family member count went up to five members: my father, mother, older sister, older brother, Daniel, and lastly me. Due how big my family was, my parents made a decision that they would move to the states in an attempt to better themselves and their children. However, this meant that they had to leave Daniel and I behind with other family members since they could only afford to take themselves and my other siblings with them at the time. Nevertheless, we were about four when we finally arrived and since then we have continued to live with our family with the addition of a little brother and dog, as the years went by.

I don’t remember much from growing up, however, what I do remember is bittersweet. I remember my older sisters constantly yelling with my mom in the morning getting ready for school and how I'd try to fix whatever they were yelling about. I remember one of my cousins, who was sixteen at the time, living with my family for a couple years because my aunt went to prison, and my dad asked him to stay with us. We were pretty close despite the age gap, so I never thought of him as a cousin but more of a big brother. Both my sister and him are all seven or more years older than I am, so we were never got much bonding time together. I also have another older brother who's only a couple of years older than me. We were very close as kids, I generally always followed him around and did whatever he did. He introduced me to most of my interests both as kids and now. When we lived in Nebraska, we didn't have much money; we weren’t in extreme poverty, but our parents had to work almost every day so we could afford our home and food. While it may have

I am the youngest of seven kids, who all moved out while I was still very young. Therefore, I never had anyone there to help me when I was growing up. I grew up in one bed room apartment with a mother who worked night and day shifts, and my brother who was 6 years older than me trying his best to take care of a little girl. My other siblings were in the picture, but they stayed with my grandmother. My oldest brother went missing before I could even talk. Therefore, my life started off a little rocky.

I grew up with both my parents working hard each day and an older brother that always pushed himself every day to do his best. What I admire about my family is how they care about people and how they interact every day with other individuals attempting to get others to feel hope, opportunity, and joy. My hope is to inherit their caring, determined hearts and carry it with me through college and the rest of my life to make a difference.

Before my brothers it was my 3 sisters Acacia, Alea, Kenna, and I. We were a tight knit group and got along for the most part. Our lives were full of tea parties and princess games, and it was almost as if it were quiet. I was 6 years old when we adopted the boys, and even looking back at such a young age I can remember the excitement and anticipation as I waited for them to officially be adopted into the family. I would have brothers! That meant 2 more people to play with, 2 more best friends, and twice the memories I’d have now. Although I was not the one adopted, my life drastically changed.

The Tuck family all love and support each other because they all share a dangerous secret that they keep. They are all really tight and protect each other. Miles has a family that left him because they believed he was worshipping the devil. Even though they left him, he still loves and misses them very much. His family are all-old now, as they did not drink the water from the spring. Winnie’s family are all very controlling and protective of her. She is getting annoyed at them as they always tell her what to do. After she comes home to them, they try to change and give her more freedom so she does not leave them again.

made up of a single parent (until later in life), and my aunts, uncle, and my loving grandmother.

If you do not show me respect you will not receive respect. If you do not show me love you will not receive love. All my life I have been surrounded by thoughts that were not my own. I’ve been told who to love and respect and I blindly went along with it- ignoring my own feelings. Sometimes it felt like that’s how everyone lived their life, living it with the thought of if you are related to someone, you have to support a relationship with them, but through experiences, I have learned the truth. There is one specific moment in time that will never make me go back on this thinking the situation after my grandparents died.

Majority of the time it has always been that fathers should be the protector of the household, but that’s not always the case. There was a time in my life where everything was perfect. Everyone was happy, laughing , and smiling. There were hardly any arguments or fighting... just good vibes. All of that changed; my perfect life and perfect family became this dark place. There were constant fighting, beating, arguing, fear, and pain. My life started to go downhill after the death  of my grandmother. I was 9 years old at the time when my grandmother, Elida, passed away. She was the light to our family, putting everyone before herself, and always gave the best advice. Elida’s death came with more than just heart aches, her death left all of our lives questionable for what the future held for our family. I knew things weren't going to be the same without her. Grandmother Elida was a wise , warm and caring person. She was the light of everything and knew just about every answer to every question. After her death there was no more laughs, smiles, and happiness; instead there was pain, fear, and darkness.

Our parents are very hard-working people. Our parents both work day and nights. They embody the “American Dream”. .My father was always hustling and bustling whether it was in the states or overseas. So, he was not as much a part of my brother and I’s childhood as we had hoped. My mother, on the other hand, took the role of dual-parenting and took care of us at home. Though, she was also busy clocking in and out. We made the most of our time together and they were the most memorable moments. At the end of the day, life treated my brother and I really well. With that, our parents could not leave us to fend for ourselves at home alone--me being three years old with a younger brother and all. But,. growing up, my brother and I spent our childhood with one of our close cousin, ‘tina’s, grandmother. She had a special nickname, “Meema”, that everyone knew her by.

As a naïve young girl, the idea of a perfect family comprised a biological mother, father, brother, grandmother, and grandfather. This beautiful family picture seemed nearly impossible for me while growing up considering the sad fact that one of my grandmothers’ rests in peace and the other, along with one of my grandfathers’ resided in another country. Due to that, I mounted all of my admiration on to the only grandparent figure I grew up with, my father’s dad. I held him on a pedestal since I could not with any of my other grandparent’s. I spent most of my weekends with him, listening to his jokes and poems. I thought the unsurmountable joy I received from holding a perfect family picture would never end, but it did. At the short age of ten years old, I witnessed that portrait crumble to pieces. The severity of his unspeakable act led me to forget him as my grandfather. I grew bitter and resentful, the thought of losing the only grandparent figure I held at my disposition crushed my tiny soul. As time passed, I grew forgetful of the meaning of a “grandparent.” Although I longed for the warmth of a second mother and father role model, I blinded myself to the reality that a grandparent does not necessarily need to stand blood-related. At the age of thirteen, Frédy, a senior fragile warm hearted woman pulled off the blindfold I carried around my eyes for three years and changed my definition of a “grandparent.” A true grandparent does not need your own blood as long as they

I was born and raised in a peaceful and friendly part of Bridgeport, Connecticut, on the North End, right in the corner between Trumbull and Fairfield. My family dynamic has changed a bit in the past three years. I’ve lived with my mom, my maternal grandmother, and my older brother for as long as I could remember. My dad was just a phone call every other day, but since my grandmother died from bone cancer he lives with us now too. I have a mutual relationship with everyone in my family, but I mostly keep to myself.