Just after Christmas, our eldest brought home a kitten, so now we have two pets in the house. Our cat and our dog don’t get along particularly well together, but every so often there’s a moment like the one above.

I think, in some ways, our family feels a bit this way after the adoption. There have been lots of moments over the years where we didn’t seem to mesh well. We’re too different. We don’t always understand each other. Sometimes people who have been in the family longer feel like they’re being displaced in their own home. Sometimes people who are newer feel unwelcome.

Then there are moments of love and kindness, when it seems like we might (someday?) start feeling like a family after all.