our letterboxung family has treated us way better than our blood relatives have

Except on the rare occasion when (unspecified letterboxers) accidentally set your kids on fire...

I'll be a black sheep...exotic and misunderstood. :P And maybe find another tribe of black sheep to spend more of my time with

Sounds like a carve to do.

Even then you have treated us better than some of his immediate family coughyoungerbrothercough has!!

That was a classic backhanded compliment, and stings more coming from family, I know. For what it's worth here is some info (hope the link works):

http://m.wikihow.com/Deal-with-Passive-Aggressive-Relatives

I know this post was nearly two years ago, and you might not even be on here anymore, but just in case I wanted to say thank you.

This explains a lot of dissonance that I feel in interactions with certain family members and I've returned to it several times for support.

I’m glad it’s helped you cope with difficult family members. You are most welcome and thank you for telling me. It nice to know I may have actually done something good in my life. :)