My Sister

Today I get to celebrate one of my best friends.  My sister, Laurel.  24 years ago my little sister was born.  As a 4 year old, I am sure I was incredibly excited to be getting a new baby sister.  Sure, I loved my little brother, but isn't that every little girls dream?  To get a baby sister so that all throughout our lives we could play dress up, make up, house, school, Barbies, etc.?!?!  Well, that "dream" didn't exactly turned out the way I wanted.  And, if any of you know Laurel, then you know exactly what I am talking about.  Sure, she would play those things with me every once in a while.  She was really good at ALWAYS letting me be the teacher.  :)  I thank her for that!  But, if you know Laurel, then you know that she would have much rather been outside, playing in the dirt, or playing baseball, or soccer, or football with my Dad and brother.  She was a FUN kid.  She loved others and loved to beat up on her brother.  (Older brother, I might add.)
To be honest, I had a hard time REALLY connecting with Laurel when we were growing up.  I adored her, but I felt like I was never cool enough to be her good friend because I wasn't as good at sports like she was.  Not to mention, I wasn't the nicest oldest sister in the world, and they WILL all remind me of that until they are super old and won't be able to remember anymore!
I did love Laurel's sense of humor.  She was one funny girl growing up.  I also loved that she had the guts to play real football in middle school and her freshman year of high school.  I remember her saying once that she would get tackled and as the guys would peel off of her, they would look at her in the face and say, "Are you a girl?!?!"  haha.  I love it.  She was good too!!!
I love that she went from playing football her freshman year, to being a dang cute cheerleader her senior year!!  She was good at that too!  (Really though, there isn't much that my sister isn't really good at!)

Now, she is 24.  A BEAUTIFUL, 24 year old woman.  She has truly blossomed into one of the MOST amazing women I know.  I am SO proud to call her my sister.  She is one of the most selfless, kind people that I have ever met.

I started to really notice her amazing-ness when I was a teenager and not making very good decisions.  I remember one night when I went into her room to say goodnight to her and I found her asleep with her scriptures open.  I will never forget the longing I felt to be like her.  She was such a good example to me.

Nine years ago, is when I really started to love and appreciate her even more.  I had really messed up in my life.  I was not the great example that an older sister should have been.  The choices that I had made in my life, not only affected me, but affected my whole family.  It affected her.  It devastated me to have to face her.  I just knew how disappointed she would be in me.  I was preparing myself to not blame her if she didn't want to have anything to do with me.
When I did have to face her,  she came in the room and sat down next to me.  We were both crying and didn't talk for the longest time.  Finally I said, "If you want nothing to do with me anymore, then I totally understand."  I don't remember much about our conversation, but I do remember how forgiving and loving she was towards me.  That moment really helped to change my life.  Thank you for that beautiful gift, Sister.

The past few months have been incredibly hard for me with all of my health problems going on.  If you want to read about that go here.  I don't want to talk about all of that on this post.  I want to talk about Laurel.  Laurel wasn't able to come to the hospital to see me because she was in her last couple weeks of school.  I know that she would have been there if she could have.  Instead, she decided to come to help me out for over a week when I was able to go home.  The day she finished school, she packed up, and drove all the way across the state to be with me.  She will never know how much that week meant to me.  I was incredibly weak, and not able to take care of my children like I wanted to.  She was there and helped me 24 hours a day.  Literally.  She slept on the floor in the living room because my hospital bed was in there.  She woke up every time Kohen would wake up and help to feed or change him.  Kohen had really bad tummy aches because of the formula he was on, and one night she stayed up with him while he was crying for a few hours so I could sleep.  Most importantly, she LOVED my kids and was there for them when I couldn't be 100%.  They fell in love with their Auntie Laurel.

One night when I was having trouble sleeping, we were talking about when she would be leaving.  She told me that she didn't want to leave because she didn't know how I was going to do it on my own.  Not that she didn't have faith in me...I was just still very weak.  I could do nothing but cry.  I didn't cry at the thought of having to be on my own.  I cried because I was reflecting how much she had helped me and how selfless she had been.  I cried because I was truly going to miss her.  And, I did.  We had grown so much closer that week.  I am so thankful for that.  It really has been so hard these past few months, but I will cherish that week for the rest of my life.  That was one of the many great blessings that came out of that trial.

I want to share one more example of how selfless and kind she is.  Two weeks ago, my brother got married.  They didn't want young kids/babies in the room during the ceremony, which was understandable.  Kaden, however would NOT stay in the room with the babysitters because he had just woken up and wasn't feeling well.  I was pretty upset at the thought of missing my brother get married.  Laurel told me that she would stay with him so that I could watch the wedding.  WHAT?!?!  I immediately told her no and that Brent was her brother just as much as mine.  It didn't really really hit me until later that night.  I was upset at the time because of the whole situation, so it didn't really compute with me exactly how much Laurel was willing to sacrifice at that moment for me.  I just want to cry thinking about it!  I am so glad that I didn't let her!  (Kaden ended up being just fine and layed his head on my shoulder the whole time.  So, we were all able to watch the wedding!)

See what I mean???  This girl is amazing!  

SISTER, 


HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Birthday!  I love you so, so, so much.  I love that you can make me laugh uncontrollably.  ("And I'm Judise"-- cue mini-hand to forehead!)  I love that you can forgive me so easily.  (Remember the eyelashes and the hot cocoa??)  I love that you are so thoughtful of others and are so giving.  Today I am celebrating YOU whole-heartedly.  I am thanking my Heavenly Father for giving me such a beautiful sister, inside and out.  Thank you for everything that you have done for me in our lives.  Thank you for being YOU.  I hope you have the best birthday ever!  I wish I was there to help celebrate with you.  


Love ALWAYS and FOREVER, 
YOUR BIG SISTER