In all probability if you’ve been around Noveltea long you’ve heard me talk about my adopted parents. Well, I’m going to be talking about them an extra-lot this week because I happen to be on a grand adventure with them out in Montana. *Cue excitement, happiness, and all sorts of dreams coming true* Therefore, I thought it might be helpful if I clarified my relationship with them a bit.

So, what exactly am I talking about when I say “adopted parents”? That’s a great question, and one that I find rather confusing to answer. First of all, I’m not actually legally adopted. Second of all, I have a perfectly wonderful biological family who I live and work with. Why don’t I really talk about my biological family, you might wonder? Quite simply because they like privacy, and we talked about it long ago and decided that just because I choose to be a writer and make my life somewhat public, that doesn’t mean that they need their lives to be public as well. By the same token, my adopted parents already live public-ish lives, and therefore are totally fine with me talking about them on Noveltea.

I met my adopted parents years ago at a conference (my adopted dad, Buddy Davis, is a singer, songwriter, dinosaur sculptor, speaker, actor, and author who works for Answers in Genesis). It’s a looonnnnggggg story that I don’t have time to go into today, but eventually over the years my future adopted parents and I developed a close friendship, which in time turned into them becoming my second set of parents.

I call them “Dad and Mom” (or “Papa and Mama” – which is how I’ll be referring to them this week on Noveltea), and they call me their daughter. In fact, if you’re familiar with them and have ever heard them talking about their daughter, that would be me they’re referring to.

Some people wonder how it can actually really work out for us to have “adopted” each other, but they really totally are my second family. I treat them just like a second set of parents, and they treat me just like their child – a very spoiled child, my siblings from my other family always point out…. Although they get spoiled by my adopted parents too; just not nearly as much as I do. 😉

Papa, Mama, and I have had lots of grand adventures together. I’ve gotten to help them build a life-size model of a dinosaur, watched them record a new CD in the studio, “helped” with the last half a dozen DVDs they’ve made, and co-authored books with them. We’ve spent weeks together at the Creation Museum, traveled throughout the United States, and spent many happy quiet evenings together at their cabin. Papa wrote a song for me which is on his Songs of Life, Love, and Faith CD, they celebrate all the “big moments” of life with me, we’re together during hard times, and the list goes on.

I feel so incredibly blessed to have a whole second family and all the love and joy and blessings that goes along with that. Speaking of that today is Papa’s birthday, and it’s nearly time for me to join them for breakfast though here in Montana, so I’ll leave it at that and say good-bye for now. If there are any questions I can answer, just let me know and I’ll do my best. Have a great Monday, y’all!