Siblinghood: Chapter One: The Adventure Years
Siblinghood
Never the subject of conversation among friends, the topic of books, neither of church or youth group teachings, nor of school lectures. Our generation is rarely aware of the family relationships between siblings that shape and mold our early years, our earliest memories, our earliest adventures, our first fights, our first “inside jokes”, our earliest battle wounds, our fiercest protectors, and our deepest bonds of love outside that of the parental nature. Among our generation there are those that do not possess the sacred bonds of siblinghood, or their bonds are battered and broken against the winds of life, and my heart truly mourns for their loss. I do not know what I would do as an only child, or if I was unable to trust and love my siblings. As the eldest sister of what are now 7 children, my siblings are my most sacred friendships I have. My siblings hold my deepest secrets; they have seen me in every stage of life (including the awkward middle school days) and have sharpened me as Proverbs says “iron sharpens iron”.
Never the subject of conversation among friends, the topic of books, neither of church or youth group teachings, nor of school lectures. Our generation is rarely aware of the family relationships between siblings that shape and mold our early years, our earliest memories, our earliest adventures, our first fights, our first “inside jokes”, our earliest battle wounds, our fiercest protectors, and our deepest bonds of love outside that of the parental nature. Among our generation there are those that do not possess the sacred bonds of siblinghood, or their bonds are battered and broken against the winds of life, and my heart truly mourns for their loss. I do not know what I would do as an only child, or if I was unable to trust and love my siblings. As the eldest sister of what are now 7 children, my siblings are my most sacred friendships I have. My siblings hold my deepest secrets; they have seen me in every stage of life (including the awkward middle school days) and have sharpened me as Proverbs says “iron sharpens iron”.
My family has taken up the call of God in adopting two lovely little twins- a boy and girl from Ethiopia. We have yet to bring them home although they are legally ours. Two new siblings bring great joy to my heart. Yes, they will have different childhoods then us as their closest sibling in age is now 15, yet so many things will be the same for them. They will have the same loving and godly parents, (who now have all the parental wisdom in the world after raising 5 PERFECT children) and two elder sisters- one a mother hen and the other mama bear- and of course three wonderfully protective and hilarious brothers, all of whom will serve and protect them at all costs. As older siblings we will introduce them to being a HURT. The late nights chats in the kitchen, dad’s “goofy” laugh, mom’s goodbye statement of “make wise choices and good decisions”, the sibling tradition of joining together and hunting for our Christmas presents while our parents are out, (after SOMEONE told, my parents got smart and started storing gifts at relative’s homes, but they still have some at the house, one just has to be smart and diligent in searching) making Doris laugh and dance, the Donut Man, the over the top birthday parties that our friends still remember and talk about, the days and years at the ball fields or in the gyms for volleyball, the adventures of acquiring a Christmas tree, and more than all of those things, my new siblings will be introduced to the Lord through our family. They are the fulfillment of prayer, of a promise given by the Lord, and they will live in a family that has seen the power and goodness of God. They will have no doubt who their God is for their family is living out a daily testimony of His being. I am SO excited to read the Bible to them for the first time, to act out David and Goliath, or to share in their first Christmas and tell them that just like Jesus, God had a plan for their lives and they were not destroyed like so many other orphans are.
Siblings are God-given, sacred, and chosen. Adoption is not simply parents gaining children, but siblings receiving new life-long friends, new confidants, new secret keepers, and new partners in crime. I am thrilled, blessed, and overjoyed in knowing that I am gaining two siblings to serve, to protect, to train in the art of parenting parents, to teach, to have adventures with, to laugh and cry with, to pray for and to seek the Lord with. Oh how He is GOOD! For now, we trust in God, knowing that He is true and He cannot lie. His promises ALWAYS prove true, and because of that we pray that our two lovely siblings come home miraculously soon.
