Before I insult someone - let me say "normal" means difference things depending on your world view and life. I grew up in post war Germany - My idea of a "normal" family - whoever is living together and has some birth or need connection. In the refugee home there where few males, and those that where there were disabled. We lived with another family, a grandmother and her grandaughter and grandson - and by we I mean my mother, myself and my grandmother. So, disabililty is normal in my world, as are non-traditional families, and living arrangements. Normal to me is what's happening in your life that's not a major upheaval. The hurricane becasue they do come thru here are not a beyond normal - happens here every so many years - my house fire was outside the norm. Amber is normal in fact there was time when thought normal kids where abnormal - becasue in my world hemiplegic child was the norm. I accepted a one handed as the way it is - even tho use two hands..... Adapting to your surroundings - I guess. I know my father was completely astonished that OPA Lanier would drink with his former SS guard from Auswitz. OPA was interred for years. Now, they lived down the street from each and drank together at the rathaus. OPA means grandfather in German. While some folks may not understand - the explanation was - both men has seen enough violence and hatred, which in many ways begins and ends with ourselves. 

                                 Trisha