Big sis followed a trio of brothers into our family, adding pink to the pallette and additional aisles to Toys R Us shopping. When Mandy was born, my daddy was struggling with cancer. Although in remission at the time, he actually died on the day he was scheduled to fly into Atlanta to meet our tiny daughter. Daddy loved our sons, but was adamant about wanting us to have a daughter. (He and Mother reared three....we did only girls at our house growing up.) "Now, you've got your girl", he announced to me over the phone, with great satisfaction. And I think God had allowed him to linger until she was born. God honors those heart desires sometimes, I do believe. And although they never got to meet on this earth, Mandy grew up telling others the story and that Grandaddy has a hug waiting for her in Heaven.
Baby Girl is the family caboose. Fourteen years and six sibling births later, Josie was due near our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Knowing that she might wonder later in life why in the world she was the only kid in her high school graduating class that had grandparent-looking parents, we pensively pondered her name. Josephine comes from Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob whom God used to redeem the nation and to restore the family. We figured that as the youngest, some big family responsibilities may fall to her in future years. Sterling, her middle name, refers to silver, a precious metal that is refined and known for its luster and reflective qualities, which we hoped would come to reflect the light of Christ through her life. We wanted Josie to grow up knowing that her debut into our middle-age years was not a financial burden or an inconvenience or a mistake, but that she was more precious than gold. And when Josie was four years old she could repeat that whole premise, including the announcement, "I am more precious than gold."
On the day of Josie's birth, Mandy was a delighted young teen declaring that her new li'l sis was her birthday present. She requested that she take the baby to bed with her and I allowed it, making a deal that she would let her babies sleep with me one day. (I remind her often.) Never begrudgingly sharing the birthday limelight, Mandy often made Josie's cake, sewed her birthday dress or collaboratd with me on her party. It was a mutual admiration society. When Mandy went off to school in England, Josie sprayed the nursery with freesia, Mandy's fragrance, every day at nap time. And it was only within recent years (truly!) that Josie realized that Leaving on a Jet Plane had been recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary and was not an original that she and Mandy had made up, although they adopted it as their song.
Thousand of miles separate the celebrants today. Last evening I spoke with Mandy as her birthday was dawning on the other wide of the world. At my morning's musing, she would be ending her day as Josie's begins. My head feels a bit dizzy, like in a time-warp somewhere outside of space and time as I think back to thirty-four years ago today and then to twenty years ago. Even though the birthday-buddies are worlds apart, busy with their own lives, and enjoying relationships in their own arenas, I trust my girlies will always be there in life for one another. Surely the God who orchestrated the commemoration of their births to occur simultaneously on the same recurring day of the timeline will bless the tie that binds their hearts and this mother's prayer.
.
And to Ruth Bell Graham's poem, I would add:
Let them have sisters, too, to care.
No comments:
Post a Comment