A Little Early Birthday Blog // My Little Sister Turns 30!

So sidekick sister... here we are! As of tomorrow, we will officially both be in our 30s and actually grown up! All our make believe games when we were little girls pretending to be grown ups are actually now reality - sort of. I don't suppose either of us will be heading up in a spaceship any time soon, and neither of us actually did become a flight attendant in the end, but those were the days, hey? So many of my childhood memories are accompanied by you... so here, to celebrate your 30th, and to thoroughly embarrass you (isn't that what turning 30 is for?) are some of my favourite memories...

Anyone who knows you, knows you're the fashionable one. The one who got the sense of style and the class to go with it. It was an interest in clothes that started early on. We shared a room for the first 12 years of your life. Me on the top bunk, you on the bottom and we'd chat quietly, occasionally sneaking out when housegroup was at our house to peer through the banisters. I'd chatter away from my top bunk, and you'd shush me from below and tell me to stop talking because you were dreaming... 

"What are you dreaming?"

"I'm dreaming that when I wake up in the morning, at the end of my bed there'll be a beautiful dress with a matching choker" 

Sadly you woke up disappointed every morning, though I do have vague recollections of a lace choker entering the wardrobe at some point?!

We were typical siblings from the outset... we played for countless hours together - our bedroom transformed regularly into a classroom, a museum, an art gallery, an airport, a spaceship, a hospital and our garden was home to a shop, a gypsy caravan and an Indian teepee. Your early ambitions ranged from being a horse (!!), to a woodcutter, to a shoeshop lady, to a brain surgeon. We had imagination and we'd create some pretty fantastical games, and then, in true sibling fashion, we'd bicker our way through them. Both of us strong characters, but we were the best training for each other in learning when to stand our ground and when to compromise. I'm truly grateful that you were my first and biggest real lesson in learning generosity, forgiveness, compromise and loyalty. Thank you for being so patient with me.

But the real fighting wasn't all of it; there were the play fights too... the fists up, dancing round in circles, daring the other to be the first to leave... the challenge to lick each others tongues (thankfully I don't think we ever actually did - we just used to freak each other out by challenging each other to!) That's SO weird in hindsight and probably shouldn't be put out there on the internet... but sisters do really weird things, right?!

We had so many adventures on our travels together... exploring America was probably my highlight - from your middle of the night "I don't want to be eaten by a bear" tantrum, to our late night country music raves with the cousins, and our solo trips to Oregon. We've roasted hundreds of S'mores over the campfire together, shared every Beverly Lewis and Tamera Alexander novel, shopped through all the outlet stores (with me buying mountains and you buying nothing - EVERY time!) We've rolled our eyes at Dad's detailed-to-the-minute holiday plans (but we TOTALLY love him for them really!), and battled it out over countless late night games of UNO and Boggle, Bananagrams and Ligretto (which you thrash me at every time).

There are so many more memories I could stick in here... the times we've laughed til we've cried and our sides hurt, the late night heart-to-hearts before going to sleep, the countless full blown arguments and sisterly bickering over the silliest little things, but I think I've realised that so much shared history forms a bond that I hope my own little girls will have too. 

Thank you for all the fun memories, and all the recent memories too. Thank you for loving our little brood so well, for always being on the end of the phone, for teaching me how to fishtail plait my girls hair and for being the loopy, slightly crazy "Tante" that they all adore...

And most of all, thank you for your witness... it's been a joy to see you standing firm in the faith, growing in the gifts of the spirit and leaning on Jesus through the tough times. Keep your eyes fixed on him!

We love you! Have a great and very special day tomorrow!

(And apologies in advance for all the people who will skim read and wish you a happy birthday today... but I wanted to get in there early!)

Mwah! X