I haven't ever tried to create a graphical representation of my family tree, but I'm sure it would look more like a jungle than anything else. My dad has 2 full sisters, 2 older brothers from a different mother and three younger brothers from a different father. There are 7 marriages between my mom and my dad (one of those was to each other.)
I grew up with a batch of cousins who were my grandfather's 2nd wife's grandchildren. I'm sure Ancestry.com has a proper name for this, but for me, they were "cousins." The three younger brothers of my dad, one of whom was only a couple years older than me, felt more like cousins than uncles. Then, when I got married, I in-lawed a whole cast of characters. Oh, and I have a couple of best friends who married each other, and they are practically family to me.
I guess in the end, I have a fairly loose definition of family because of all of this. If we're meant to be together in the eternities, each of us an intersection of cross threads in a majestic fabric, I don't see why we can't adopt people as family even when there's no legal precedent for it. So there. =P
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