Can you build a real family out of friends?

I set off to find out.

Just over a year ago, my partner and I had a little baby named Avi.

And that’s when it hit me. I know it’s crazy, but that is really when the following realization properly hit me: It really sucks to live all the way across the world from my mom and my brother and anyone else who I could really call “family.”

My mom is in New York and I’m across the ocean…