Friends. (FMF)

They aren’t quite at the age yet where they are whispering secrets and I’m the interloper. No, I get brought into the conversation quite frequently– to bust up disagreements.

They squabble a lot. Lucy, an only child for three years still doesn’t get why someone, let alone a sister, would just walk up and take something she is currently enjoying.

At first she would just sit there, bewildered. Now she has learned to hold her own a little bit.

And Abby, well.. she is of the mindset that she is in charge. She even announced that to me in Target yesterday. “I in charge. Mommy. I in charge.” 

Ha.

But though they are both so small and still just starting to come into their personalities– I can look ahead.

Not because I had a sister. I was blessed with four older brothers– leaving me well taken care of but with only the dog, Sally, and my mom on my side of the camp.

Sisters or not, I know what a hilarious gift siblings are.

There are few things I love more than sitting around my parents HUGE table and laughing so hard at whatever one of my adult brothers have just said.

There’s a bond there that cannot be easily explained– and it isn’t just because we all happened to be born into the same house on Almond Ave in that neighborhood with the slightly eccentric cat lady and cranky Mr. Gum. Or was it Jum? I don’t know. I just remember the stories of him yelling from his front porch whenever my brothers would run for the bus. Flannel shirts, little dungarees and half a piece of over-toasted cheese toast hanging out of their mouths. He would yell not-so-nice things and they would secretly plot how they would ride their bikes through the very corner of his yard– just to instigate a little fun.

The stories are always funny, no matter how many times we tell them.

And it goes beyond photo albums of grainy polaroids of us all huddled around the tree on Christmas morning.

God gave my parents the gift of five kids, all stair-stepped and born into a life of beautiful chaos. The beauty was in spite of and because of the chaos. There was always something funny going on and even the ordinary days were pretty fun. But perhaps their reward for listening to our heightened level of noise all those years is seeing us know, laughing and just having each other to enjoy.

Because– now we are all grown up and we still love each other.

I would contest, we love each other more. We are friends now. And that is perhaps one of the best things about having more than one child.

Being able to “look ahead” for them.

To see the other side of these, “she took my doll and pulled my hair!!!!!!” to the days of friendship. The days of calling just to say hi and the days of meaningful encouragement.

Maybe that’s one of the greatest joys of being a parent.

Seeing your babies become friends.

Yesterday I saw it in my rear view mirror. Giggles and laughter and holding hands and silly jokes (which only makes sense to them.)

And I can look ahead and see them around my table one day…  beyond the days of note-enough-crayons-to-go-around. Abby will probably still thinks she’s in charge. But Lucy can handle it. And though they will always be sisters–I hope they will choose to be friends.

“Forever, O Lord,
Your word is settled in heaven.
Your faithfulness endures to all generations;
You established the earth, and it abides.”   Psalm 119:89-90

 

 

Linking up with  the Five Minute Friday crowd today! Happy Friday!