Beauty from Ashes

My sister.

She was born a week after I turned five. It was neat at first, but mom became extremely busy and things went downhill from there, in my opinion.

She was cute, sweet, adored me and wanted to be just like me. I was profoundly annoyed and completely uninterested in her for the next 18 years.

I married a few weeks after her 18th birthday. Shortly before the wedding, I realized for the first time, I NEEDED her. No one else could fill the spot. She was my maid of honor, and I was excited to hang around with her. Things were okay as she went to college and I moved away and had a baby.

During college, she married a guy I tried to like, but did not trust, and for the next seven years we spoke once or twice per year.

I was heartbroken. I begged her to forgive me for my selfishness, meanness, and disinterest. I offered to go to counseling.

She ended up moving to another state, and the chasm grew. When we did have time together, things were strained. I was a first hand example of someone reaping what she had sewn.

I had another child and grieved that she wasn't anywhere around. I finally resigned to my children not having their aunt in their lives.

I'll never forget the day that I received her phone call. He had left her; life had been horrible since they had moved out of state. She had to stay for a year until she could be officially divorced. We talked on the phone every day, sometimes for hours trying to wade through her pain and disappointment. I was so glad she had called...me.

Eight years later, she is remarried to the most amazing guy (besides my husband and my dad) on the planet. They have a child. We are best friends. God is so good. He makes beauty from ashes again, and again, and again.