Friday, October 16, 2009

mysterious{ness} of sisterhood

i was a budding sophomore in high school before i was blessed with a sister relationship. we waited and waited for the two caboose children born to our family after 10 anxious years of waiting for their glorious arrival. there was the first family, myself and 3 brothers born in a five year span. then... 2 caboose children born just 12 months apart. we were all thrilled with their arrival.

i had always dreamed of having a sister. always dreamed of sharing clothes. doing make up. all things girl. why my lovely neighboring household boasted 4 sisters. e,h,j and s. wonderful girls that were always calm, played barbies and other magnificent girl activities that made it very apparent that our household was lacking the female variety in quantity.

imagine the honeymooning phase of sisterhood i embarked upon as a teenager to get a sister. it was worth the long wait and certainly void of any indifference expressed in a normal sisterhood other peers had expressed disdain with.

my red headed mate only experienced the male variety growing up. with a family boasting 4 strapping boys he never saw the effects of sisterhood. why when we were first married as we were getting ready for church one sunday, he tried expressing his admiration over my lovely church apparel which turned out to be a slip. he had a modest mother who never let on to such feminine secrets.

at the news that our third bundle of joy was going to be all female, i was thrilled with the prospect of have 2 sisters under my roof. thrilled. being such new territory my limited experience and naivety was a bad combination. upon seeing 2 female personalities develop at our house there are lots of weary glances exchanged between the red head and i. as sweet as the tender moments exchanged they are very dramatic and well, girl.

the other day i found myself in the garage working on my year long project of the rescued buffet. the door was opened and i could hear the girls setting up for a lovely tea party to discuss the fate of the boxed up halloween decor. "winds of love" was fetching some pumpkin chocolate chip bread for herself and offered the gesture to "hella" while they embarked on serious planning discussion. before i knew it there was what i thought to be squeals of delight at the prospect of a tea party. i was soon educated on the squealing only to find "winds of love" had been trapped in the jaws of "hella". "hella" wanted grayce's square of cake and was not going to wait. when grayce refused giving her peice up, hella took matters into her own hands, or teeth actually, and hunkered down on sisters biceps.

i doctored the wound with an ace bandage holding an ice pack to help the swelling. it was a gory battle wound fitting for a halloween horror show.

later that night we were fetching supplies for grayce's costume at the local emporium. she had brought her own money and upon remembering that the little devil would turn three on october 18, as hella will tell you, she decided it would be appropriate to spend all her funds on matching webkinz they could play with. my jaw dropped to the floor as i watched her struggle to get her money out with her injured arm. had she so quickly forgotten that this devil of a sister nearly caused an ER visit that could have entailed sewing a chunk of skin back on to make her whole? i almost felt the need to remind her but bit into my tongue that was bleeding by the time the venture was coming to an end.

i mulled the days activities over in my mind countless times looking for the eternal principle found here. last night as i was going over holy scripture, i came upon a chapter heading that answered my question. it declares, "faith is a hope which is not seen which is true." maybe this is far fetched for some, but my minuscule mind was opened and i saw with the innocence of my gracye. she knows the eternal bind she shares with ella can't be stopped by a bite or mean words. and it reminded me of my hope and faith in the sisterhood i share with paige. it goes beyond bites and fights. it is faith and hope that lace our relationship and pulls us together in the perils of life..

1 comment:

erin said...

man, we had you fooled. remind me to show you my facial scars from jaclyn's "grabbing and scratching" phase. but every time i look at them, i fondly remember my younger, slightly higher strung sib. sounds like G & H are right on par for a happy, hormonal, totally normal, loving sisterly bond.