It takes a village to raise a child

I woke up early this morning to go to work with my friend Heather, and as we were driving to her offices in Owasso, we were talking about our families, as we were talking I realized how even though my biological mother wasn't in my life, and I never considered my biological and actual parental example, that God provided a village to raise me. So many people have had such a huge influence over who I am today. As a young child in my formative years I was raised by my Grandmother (who prefers to be called grany because it makes her feel younger) and my two aunts. These two seperate influences can be seen in the way I behave today. I gained my grandmother's gift of being nosey and manipulitive, and I also gained her generosity and huge ability to care. I gained my aunts' stubborness and hard headedness as well as their love of God. Now those are just the influences inside my family, outside is where the village God provided truly takes over. My views on God, religeon and philosophy and other such things that have a huge impact over who I am today, differ from my family's views in a major way. I gained this world view collectively from my family, and the universal village God provided. Some of the "village" parents God provided for me are still in my life today, and some are not. Some are living in different states, some in different parts of the world, yet whether they are near me or not, they still impact me every time I think of them. I rejoice in God every time I find myself saying something that one of these substitute parents taught me, and everytime I say or do something that I picked up just out of habit of being around them. In fact one of these village parents is Heather who I mentioned earlier in this blog post. Another Is Flea Christensen who's house I'll be at later, and these are just two of the many people, who form my "village" that it took to raise a child. Who is in your "village"?