My family has what I believe is a positive step in the evolution of family culture. From my side, we get our traditional Native American views that we are all part of the greater universe and should do what we can to protect and enjoy the natural world. My husband bring traditions that includes hard work and the importance of caring for family. We've both been raised in military families, made several moves, and been exposed to many different cultures and ethnicities. I believe that our experiences have helped us create a family culture that embraces both our ethnic backgrounds, respect others, reinforce the need for work/life balance, and the diversity of what family means.
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My husband's family is Cajun, which is a mix of French, Spanish, Italian, Native American, and West African. His family shares a love of food and their motto is "Powells have rubber walls." Which means that family supports family and if someone needs a place to stay, we don't turn them away, the walls expand (as if they were made of rubber). He also embraces the "weird" and has help me and our children be more confident in being ourselves.
My family background is Native American, Spanish, Polish, and French. Because of trauma experienced by my grandparents' generation, we've lost much of our Native American language because they were not allow to speak it. So I've made it a point to share as much of our other traditions, like herbalist medicine, with our children. I've taught my husband to appreciate a work/life balance and mutual respect for our children rather than authoritative parenting. Food is one area where we experience much of our own and other cultures. We love to make dishes from other countries and cultures and are always looking for more. Perhaps in the future, food will be the link my children share with another culture.
With the many moves between us, we've both learned to create a family through friendships. Among the aunts and uncles our children have are many lifelong friends that have helped us raise our children and that we've helped in return. Our bonus brothers, sisters, grandparents, and children consist of different cultures, gender identities, and sexualities. Because of this, our children have grown up with many trusted adults they are comfortable talking to and we've been able to raise our family with lots of support. We didn't realize how ingrained our adopted family was until earlier this year when our 15-year old son asked what Uncle Jimmy's relationship to the family was since he only see him at his grandparents' house or when he's in town for a concert. Uncle Jimmy is my biological brother and when we explained this he asked if Uncle James was my husband's brother. Uncle James is my husband's best friend but he's a trusted uncle to our children whom our adult children visit on their own and our eldest son came-out to first. 
I believe that as the world changes and blood-related families become smaller, developing family relationships with close friends will become more important. We've been successful in raising children in a family where our ethnic differences are embraced, traditions are celebrated, and family means more than to whom you are born. 
