I Always Wanted a Sister

My sister-in-law, nephew and niece are visiting us for the next week while my brother is away for work.  I’m thrilled to have them here. The kids are great and well-behaved, a joy to have in our
home…but my sister-in-law…I don’t know how to explain how much I like having her here.

I still remember the first time I spoke with her on the phone.  My brother called from Germany to tell me that he had fallen in love, did I want to “meet” her?  Before I could say yes, I heard this deep laugh and then a definite Wisconsin accent.  I’ll admit to being surprised that my sweet Texan brother had fallen for a Yankee gal.  Didn’t he know that Yankees are for making fun of, not for marrying?  🙂

The more she talked, the more I smiled.  I completely understood his attraction.  My brother is a lot like me, and his bride is the girl version of my own beloved Computer Guy.  Where we are loud and gregarious, our spouses are more quiet and reserved.  They are the cool to our hotness.  I knew she was a keeper even before he proposed.

Here we are a few years later and our familiarity has brought us to a place of easy give and take.  We have become family.  She knows where the skeletons are buried and how to tiptoe around them; when she speaks of her family’s politics, I know all the players.

Sandwiched in between two brothers growing up, I dreamed of the day my parents would have another daughter so that I wouldn’t be alone.  I prayed nightly for God to send me a sister, but He never did. Then, one day, I got a call from Germany, and somehow I knew, when I first heard that funny accent on the phone that here was a woman who was destined to be more to me than just the love of my brother’s life, she was the sister I had been praying for so many years ago.