Friday Flashback

I've been doing a lot of cleaning (or nesting, whatever), and I came across a pile of old pictures yesterday. This one was my favorite:

This is a picture of all of my siblings and I when we were younger. I have no idea what year it was, but I'd say I'm about 7 or 8 in this picture? I'm the one in the blue sweatshirt that looks like a boy... This must have been one of the family vacation drives across the country.

Let me give you a better look at our faces:

I'm not sure why, but looking at this picture makes me get a little emotional. It looks like we are having fun, huh? I'm sure we were. I'm also sure we could have been fighting an hour before or after this picture as well. We still laugh like this when we all get together.

I look at this picture, and I not only see my siblings, but I see the type of world/surroundings I want to create for my own children. I want my children to have this; now and later.

I want Mallary to have brothers she can tag along with growing up, and in college. A brother she can call for whatever type of advice he'll end up specializing in. A brother she can look up to, and admire. I'm lucky I have two brothers, both of whom I admire and look up to. One I can call for accounting advice (or English advice, but I rarely have questions about Shakespeare), and the other is my on call physicians assistant even though he lives thousands of miles away. Though my brothers would never let me play Frisbee with them when I was growing up (I blame them for me not being very good at Frisbee to this day), I know if I needed something today they would do everything they could to help me.

I want Mallary to have sisters. Sisters can be life long friends, and life long teachers. I didn't really get along with either of my sisters growing up. I think I was a pest to my older sister, and I thought she was pretty stinky herself, and my little sister and I fought worse than most cats and dogs. We grew out of it, thank goodness, and, I'm not sure what I'd do without them now. I talk to at least one of my sisters every day, and sometimes both of them. It's funny, sometimes I'll be on the phone with one of them, and the other will either beep in calling me, or calling the one I'm on the phone with. I call them with questions, complaints, and to talk about our latest shopping finds (because, really, husbands or brothers could really care less about our shopping finds...) I can't imagine losing my mother and not having had my sisters. At times when I would have called my mom, if she were still alive, I'll call my sisters. It's not exactly the same, but at times it's close enough. Just by saying to them, "I wish I could talk to mom," and them knowing exactly how I feel, makes me feel a little better. I feel like I'll be cheating Mallary out of a huge blessing in her life if she doesn't have a sister. But, who knows? She may never get a sister... how sad would that be?

I want Trevan to have sisters too. I don't know, maybe my brothers wish they didn't have sisters sometimes, but I think boys who grow up with sisters have an advantage to boys that grow up without sisters. I think there may be less adjusting to living with a woman if a boy grows up with sisters. I want Trevan to have brothers too. Brothers to play Frisbee with, or basketball, golf, whatever. (Don't get me wrong, brothers can play sports with their sisters too - I totally played sports with my brothers, with the exception of Frisbee of course..., but I think brothers like playing sports with their brothers better?) I love to watch John with his brothers, and I want to give my son the opportunity to have that too. But, who knows? He may never get a brother... how sad would that be?

I have friends that were only children, and friends that didn't have sisters, and I've seen that they create their own kind of community of family with their friends. Any kind of community like that is wonderful, but I want to give my children that same built in community of siblings that I had and have.

I'm glad Trevan and Mallary have each other and this next little sibling. I hope there will be lots of times for them like the picture shows above with me and my siblings.