It's summer on ABC Radio National so we're bringing you some of your favourite stories from the year gone by.

Today, we're diving into family relationships. During the holiday season, those ties feel more tangled (and more telling) than ever.

They're fraught with complexities, but probably the deepest and most intimate connections many of us will ever have.

We talk to a so-called "reproductive refugee" - who fled her home state, to create her own family and make her dream of motherhood come true.

We also unpack whether a marriage can survive addiction, and look at the dynamics of family secrets.