Sunday, June 11, 2006

Happy Birthday, Emily!


When I first got married, I had a lot of personal "issues." A lot of them negatively impacted my relationship with my husband's sister, Emily. I am happy to say that God, time, and zoloft :) took care of a lot of those issues, and my sister in law is now one of my most treasured friends.

Now, let me tell you a little about Emily. She's got a bit of a Princess complex. In the past, I used to be incredibly jealous of this complex. Because you see, part of this complex includes Emily coming across as very self confident and very sure of herself. Yeah. I've NEVER felt that way. So I was a bit jealous of her comfort in herself. Maybe more than a bit.

She's stubborn, bossy, sarcastic, and always right. She's kind, clever, loyal, generous, honest, and fun. She's a labor and delivery nurse. She's a mother of two. She's amazing. She's a lot like her mother, my MIL. And you remember what I wrote about her? How she might be intimidating at first because she's always put together? Yes, that's Em too.

Lately, Emily and I have been talking a lot. Our friendship/sistership has gone to a deeper level in the past 5 months. Emily was there, holding my hand when I delivered Henry. She cleaned him up and wrapped him in a beautiful blanket. She did his hand and feet molds for us. She held me as I cried, and cried with me. And then, beyond the initial storm, she was there for me as my marriage began to suffer because of the grief that we were under. And even though I'm married to her BROTHER, she never told him of the conversations she and I had about him. :) You know how women talk. :)

I'd like to think that I've been there for her, listening, laughing, crying, and hugging in the same way. I know we both say at least once a day that we're gonna go to Hades because of the outrageous things that we say and do with each other. (Get your minds out of the gutter... not those kind of things!!) We giggle uncontrollably, whisper in each other's ears about silly things, call each other from the dressing room of stores to share our excitement about sizes, yell about our jobs to each other, and of course, complain about our kids and husbands together. She gets it when I call and say, "Your family is WEIRD." She gets it when I don't want to talk. I can pretend that everything is hunky dory with a lot of people, but not with her. And you know, she has a hard time pretending that with me too. Perhaps that's why things were so bumpy for us in the beginning. We are a lot alike and couldn't hide from each other the way we hid from other people. Wow. That's a deep revelation that just came to me. :) That's kinda scary, if you think about it. But it's good too.

So Emily, just in case I don't get to post on your "real" birthday... Happy Birthday, and I love you heaps and bunches! You're an amazing sister and friend. Thanks, Babe.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say thanks if technology will let me. I tried this days ago and it was down. Anyway...thanks babe! Maybe our rough start has only made us stronger. Hey what a revelation...do you think we should apply that to other areas of our lives:)
Em