Friday, August 8, 2014

She is Going to Change Your World

13 years ago today I sat in a house waiting for some of the most exciting news one can get... the news that a new member of the family has arrived safe and sound. The new family member was my cousin and I waited with some family members at their home while my Aunt and Uncle were at the hospital.

It was a beautiful summer day in Courtice, Ontario and we waited happily filled with anticipation. Finally the call came. It's a girl. She is perfect. Her name is Taylor.

I found myself in a bit of a happy daydreamy fog at this point. One of the family members I was waiting with was my cousin Stephanie, six years my junior and born on my birthday. She was newly 9 the day her sister was born, nearly exactly the same age I was when my sister had been born six years earlier. Like me, she had a brother as well born a few years after her. 

I was overwhelmed with love and excitement and amazement most of all for Stephanie. My younger brother is one of my best friends, and I can't imagine my life without him but there was something special about being old enough to really participate in all of the stages my younger sister went through. To be old enough to take her to do things without our parents. To be old enough to remember her very first days. I knew Steph had all of this to look forward to and more. She was ecstatic. I looked at her and I didn't know how to put all of what I was feeling into words. How do you tell someone all of the amazingness that is having a little sister? I couldn't. Congratulations, I told her, and I meant it with every fibre of my being. Just like my own did for me, she is going to change your world.