On Monday, June 11th we celebrated my "baby" sister turning 18 years old. I'm fighting back tears as I write this. You see, I had always wanted a little sister. I begged and pleaded, but came to realize by ten years old we weren't going to be adding to our family until....my mother came home at 40 years old pregnant. No, this was not planned. I immediately began praying the baby would be the sister I'd always wanted and she is. Having siblings 14 and 17 years older than her could not have been easy at times (like having double the number of people telling you what to do), but she handled it well. This lovely young lady has had to deal with more than her fair share of life situations in the last 18 years from my parent's divorce to being diagnosed with Crohn's Disease (and several things in between). These are things that could have ruined her spirit and kept her from living the gift of life. However, God totally protected her during these times and preserved her true joy for life enabling her to feel good about being silly with friends and standing up for her moral beliefs when it counts. These are things I wish I had accomplished at her age. She has a second family in her youth group at church where she has found refuge time and time again. What an amazing gift to us, her family, to watch her grow into this young woman.
2 comments:
I can't believe this is Meredith. She was what? 5 when we met???? Good night! I refuse to think that we are 13 years older. We are still 18 ourselves, right????
I had no desire to have children until Meredith came along. Rocking her to sleep, singing songs together and making silly faces changed my heart. She is a true blessing.
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