Sunday, March 20, 2011

Weekend Surprise

My sister made a spontaneous trip up here to visit this weekend.  Her hubby is in the air force and is stationed in Dayton which is only 3 hours away from us.  Considering the rest of our family is almost 3000 miles away in Arizona, we are practically neighbors. 
Now let me tell you about my sister… who I think I’ll call “Pollyanna”. 
She’s my older sister by two years, and she’s pretty dang amazing.
She is so patient.  She is so understanding and kind.  She is always there for me with a listening ear and great advice.  We went to college together and were each others first roommates.  … okay, so it wasn’t always BFF land, we’ve definitely had our up’s and downs, but over the last several years, especially as we have both lived so far from family we’ve bonded in a way that I don’t think many sisters get a chance to do.  We relate to each other on a whole new level now. 
I’m also totally in awe of my sister. 
She, like me, is a stay at home mom. 
She, like me, has 3 children (although her two oldest are identical twin girls). 
She, like me, has to deal with a husbands stressful job, and having him gone a lot.  She, like me, has a lot on her plate… but, she’s got a few more elements to her job.
Her sweet hubby is getting to be deployed to Afghanistan in a few months.  She’s in the process of preparing to truly be completely on her own for at least 6 consecutive months… something that I can’t even being to imagine.  On top of that she is completely unsure if she’s going to be getting a pay check in April because of government budget cuts that are taking place, so she has to worry about her finances… and to top it all off, as if preparing to be a single mom isn’t enough… all three of her children are autistic.
I really don’t know how she does it.  She balances their school schedules, their therapy appointments, and all the other responsibilities that come with Motherhood.  I have so many hard days balancing it all with all that's on my plate... I have no idea how she can handle the many added elements that I can barely comprehend. 
And she does it gracefully.
She’s a saint.  What can I say?
It was so nice to see her and her hubby and her children.  We didn’t do much as far as activities go.  We pretty much just chilled out all day.  I taught Pollyanna how to make some cute hair bows for her girls.  That night we went out and collected some firewood and we started a fire in the fire place and watched a movie. 
It was so relaxing.  It was like a one day mini vacation. 
The only member of the family that I think was a little upset over the visit was poor Otis who was locked in the dining room all day to keep him from scaring the kids too much.  J
It was a short visit, but it was wonderful.
I’m so grateful tonight for family, especially surprise visits from a sister!

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