My sister is getting married tomorrow. My little sister, the one who is 11 years younger than me. The one whose diapers I changed when she was a baby and whose hand I held when she was scared. The sister who has grown into a beautiful woman of whom I am proud to be related.
As she’s embarking on this new journey, I can’t help but think back on how she’s grown into the person she is today. I remember as a child how she stood out from the crowd with her beautiful strawberry blonde hair, yet she never had the stereotypical red-head tempermant to go with it. Instead, she was sweet and gentle.
In school, she was the one who talked to the new kids in class to make sure they didn’t feel alone. She was the person who sent hand-written notes in the mail just to say she was thinking of you. And she was the person who would drop whatever she was doing if you needed help.
Even now as she has become accomplished both scholastically and professionally, she is still that girl who was so kind and sweet. She’s just added “polished,” “accomplished,” “well-traveled,” and “driven” to her list of attributes.
I talk about these achievements and characteristics because they are so incredible to me. I had moved out of the house by the time my sister was eight, so I missed a lot of her growing up years. It wasn’t until she migrated out west for school that we ended up seeing each other on a regular basis. For the past eight years, my sister and I have lived in the same state which is quite an achievement considering neither of us live remotely close to our Southern home. I am grateful for these years that I have been able to get to know her not as the little girl she was, but as the woman she is now. I am grateful for the hours that we have spent laughing and talking and just goofing around, as well as the many hours of shopping, sleepovers and road trips. Years and years of memories created by time spent together.
And I know that just because she is getting married doesn’t mean that these times together will stop. They will just change a bit. Now there will be four of us getting together for dinners and movies instead of just two. And we’ll still have our shopping trips and even some sleepovers when the boys are out-of-town. So we will continue to create memories together. They will be simply be a little different because they will include her new husband and my own sweetie. And eventually, they will include little ones who have beautiful strawberry-blonde hair and are sweet and gentle just like their mother.
I can’t wait.
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