Siblings…….

Welcome to Friday, friends. If you are in a part of the country that is snowed in, I send you warm wishes. I always feel bad when I talk to friends in other parts of the country and they are cold and miserable. But I remind them that they can feel sorry for me in a few months when it is 275 degrees on a good day.

Today I am talking about siblings. Do you have them????? Do you enjoy them???? No, don’t answer that. No need to incriminate yourself :). As many of you know because you prayed with us, my brother was very ill last month. I won’t share all the details because that is his story to share. But I will share a little from my perspective.

I have one sibling. A brother, who I might say is literally the best. We are only 1 year, 10 months and 10 days apart in age. That’s pretty close. But he was always the BIG brother. He just has big brother energy. He was always the kindest person. When he was entering teen years and I was the annoying little sister, I would always be in his room yammering about something I am sure he was not interested in. When he wanted me out of his room he would pick me up and walk through the house and deposit me gently on the sofa. That was how he “threw me out’ of his room. And that is how he has handled me our whole lives. But not just me. That is just who he is.

Now we conspired and got into some mischief. He was once grounded from the phone. For those of you who remember family land lines, you understand the dilemma. He wanted to make a call and told me to sit in the room with him and if one of our parents approached he would toss me the phone as if I were the one on it. How many of you already know I couldn’t catch it……he tossed, I missed, but my dad couldn’t do anything but laugh.

Well when got the call last month of just how ill he was, I made a scary drive to the hospital and an even worse one back home to gather family as directed by the doctors. It was a long journey. But it ended with God bringing him back to us. Sedation is a booger. When he was coming off of sedation, he was grumpy and agitated and it was just so out of character. I kept telling all the hospital staff, he is really nice. You know how when you drop a kid off at Sunday school or Big School for the first time and you are trying to convince the teacher how sweet your kid is so they will be nice to them? Well that was me in the hospital. I was telling everyone who would listen what a kind and sweet guy he was.

I sent text messages to tons of praying people every day giving them updates. But I sent one message to only a handful of close friends that said….”I am desperate for my brother back”. At that moment I needed them to pray for me. Finally, at the end of one of the long days in the hospital he said to me and mom……thank y’all for everything. The tension of the last weeks exited my body. This was my brother and I knew he was back.

Gratefully, he came home with us and spent a couple of weeks here getting stronger. I don’t wish anything like this one anyone. That illness and hospital stay were hard. Very hard. But having him here was the best. We cooked for him, doted on him and asked him every 20 to 30 minutes if he needed anything. My husband said he is highly motivated to recover quickly because of all of our attention. His kids, grandkids, my kids all gathered and played board games and laughed and enjoyed each other tremendously.

On a day to day basis, both of us are fairly emotionally even. We are not gushy, sappy, touchy, feely people. We don’t talk every day. But there is never a doubt that we show up for each other. For each other, for each other’s kids – we’d be there in a heartbeat.

Siblings are something special. Love on them. Don’t take them for granted. And for goodness sake if you are still mad about them borrowing your blue sweater without permission 20 years ago or holding the pantry door closed and not letting you out when you were 13……let it go. Get out some board games, show up for each other and make sure they know you love them.

And then make a photo collage of you and them together

Trust me……they are going to love it!!!!!

Have a great weekend.