it's my sister's birthday!!!

...Happy Birthday to Jana! I hope you have a wonderful, fun day!

I have the most amazing sisters. They are both such amazing mothers, wonderful women, cool, smart, talented and I look up to both Jana and Krista. I appreciate them so much.

I wasn't always so appreciative of them. They were the older, wiser ones and Casey and I were always considered the babies. Jana left for college when I was in 5th grade and Krista left two years later. And although, I got to know Krista a little more than Jana because we shared a bathroom for those two years before she graduated, I still had a lot to get to know, if you know what I mean. And what I knew of Jana--I knew she was my sister, but I didn't know her as a person. (How many time can I use the word know or knew in a paragraph? Let's count and see...)

Then, my not-so-cool teenager years struck and I was hard to get along with (what teenager isn't like this?) I disliked that every time we had a break from school, we had to go see my sisters in San Antonio. I liked seeing my sisters--just not the good-byes that were inevitable every time we visited. I missed them and the longer we didn't see each other, the less it bothered me that I didn't know them. Then we would see each other and it bothered me again.

By the time I went to college, they lived far away from Texas. I saw them once, maybe twice a year. Now it wasn't that I didn't know them, they didn't know me either. Jana even said many times that she still thought of me as little.

Then, because of God's amazing timing, all four of us (Casey included), had children that are close in age. My parents have 7 grandchildren, the first born in 2000 and the youngest born in 2005. That instantly bonded us. We talked more. We shared more. We started wanting to get together more. I started to get to know Jana--not as my oldest sister, but as a friend. Krista and I renewed that bond again that was just beginning when we were sharing a bathroom all those years before. She became my friend too.

Now, I consider my sisters as two of my best friends. I love them both very much and I am so lucky to be their little sister. But I am also glad that I am not treated as their "little" sister anymore. I love sharing our children's lives together and I am so thankful for God's timing.