Sisters.

My earliest memories involve my sisters.
I can't recall much of my toddler years, but I can recall a few memories embedded into my mind. They involve a sister or two.
When I think back to some of the happiest, most fun days of my life, most of them include my younger sister. We were best friends when we were younger. Inseparable.
As we got older, we grew apart. Somehow situations changed us and the directions we were going in. Time does that.

My sister and I stayed in contact but the bond that we had faded in a lot of ways. And it really wasn't until February of this year that something changed that. My sister Kalin's husband was deployed. Kalin had made plans to stay somewhere while he was gone but when those plans fell through, I let her know that she was welcome to come stay with us for awhile. All in one day, she said her teary good-bye to her husband and made her way from Massachusetts to New York. She arrived on our doorstep with tears and a sad heart. I knew just what she needed. Distraction. And some fun. And so our journey began.

It didn't take long for us to pick up right where we left off over 15 years ago. It came naturally really. We began watching Desperate Housewives from the beginning. It was our ritual to pour some wine, grab snacks and cuddle up for a couple dramatic episodes. We searched for summer jobs for her. We went shopping together. I'd buy the organic food and she'd have a healthy, new dinner ready for us on the table when we got out of work. We went on walks together, had nights out, sat on the porch in the night air drinking Sangria and had ridiculous dance parties in the living room. We laughed so hard we almost peed our pants and at the end of the day when we went to our rooms, I felt a comfort knowing that she was here with me. After all those years, we were just like we were when we were little. Together.

Moving here to New York has been a wonderful blessing to us. But I have to admit that it started off as a very lonely journey. Moving here when Scarlett was only months old, I knew no one and it was a really hard move for me. Isolating. Of course time heals that. This place has definitely become my home. As the days went by and Kalin became part of our normal life, a hole in me that was missing family and friends so dearly, was filled. Ty works a lot of hours lately. Sometimes 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. It can remind me of those first lonely months when we moved here to NY. But having Kalin around was a great comfort.

She needed someone on that teary day that she said good-bye to her husband. She needed a friend. And when I asked her to come stay with us, I didn't even realize how much I really needed her. I guess God works in strange ways like that………

These last 5 months, we reconnected. I felt that same sensation when I was 10 years old and she would look up to me with eyes of wonder. What's next? I would look forward to coming home at the end of a busy day because I knew that she would be there and we could eat dinner together and just talk. She also helped me out so much with Scarlett during her sick days. I might have been fired if she hadn't lent a helping hand.
She had days where she was sad with things happening in her life and I had days of stress due to mine. But in between those technicalities, we were here standing by each other talking and giving each other advice. We were sisters. The way sisters are supposed to be.  Last week she was offered a job back in Massachusetts. I knew that she wouldn't be here forever but I just thought we'd have the summer. I'm happy that she is getting things in order for the return of her husband later this year and that she is moving up in the employment world, but still……I couldn't help but selfishly be sad when she told me she got the job.


I watched her drive away just an hour ago. After a morning of packing and an afternoon of the usual sister stuff, we hugged good-bye and she was off. I walked back inside and started cleaning as I usually do when I don't want to think about something. It was all of 5 minutes when the tears started building up. The house already felt……different. It is strange how something you didn't even have in your life less then 6 months ago, you can miss so much now.

Anyways.
That's the thing about time. There's never enough of it.


This week will definitely be an indifferent one for me. Still, I'm thankful for the time that we had to reconnect. The time we had to laugh. The time that we had to be sisters again. I think that this time was brought to us so we could become close again. I look forward to wedding planning and visits from her. Life is a book full of chapters. As we move onto the next one, I wish my sister all the best. I'm hoping it all falls into place for her and I hope she knows all that she's done for me in the last few months…….


Visit us lots!... I love you Mouse.





xoxo