nobody loves me true like you do*

Yes, she is fierce.  Fiercely funny. Fierce in her loving. 

Fiercely loyal and so wicked smart. 

She is my little sister.

Goofball, playmate, wrestler and driver-of-long-distances. Oh my gosh, we love you.

She cleans out our grossest cupboards. She's the keeper of the birthday wish lists.  She's the one who doesn't laugh that you have a "grown-up size tricycle" on your list, and tells you to keep putting it on there, 'cause one day who knows?? (Same story with "puppy", thank goodness)

Lovely lady. She had me in belly laughs for much of this visit - once because I just knew we were thinking the very same thing while watching a dance concert and the shaking of the seats was unbearable, like trying not to laugh in church. I thought we might bust, but we lived to do our own version of the dance (grapevine quickly across the floor and then FALL) whenever the mood strikes us.  She remembers the pop songs I remember from junior high (and plays them for me so I can dance in the kitchen when I should be washing dishes or something more useful) and can harmonize to the song we made up once when we were kids on a long car trip across Europe.

Oh yeah, and she has this amazing child who is a sister to my girls. Maybe even better than a sister, with all the deep love and less of the bickering.  This girl sparkles and only sits still to write and draw with her cousins.

Wake up and PAINT

Writing, writing, writing...so many stories.

When my girls are feeling less than grateful about having a sister, I remind them that mine became closer to me than I imagined possible.  One day maybe they will be that lucky.

SISTERS! photo by Lucy

*lyric by Andrea Wittgens