A Toast to My Sissy

Last weekend we traveled to Playa del Carmen to celebrate my sister's wedding. It was quite the adventure traveling with a six month old. Maybe I will get around to writing more about that experience - for the most part he did great...until he didn't. ;-)

More importantly, it was a beautiful wedding and great weekend of celebrating the happy couple with family and friends!!

Here is my toast to my sissy :)

Thank you to everyone who made the trip to celebrate this wonderful day with Bart and Kara. Looking around the room, I am so happy to see them surrounded by some wonderful couples who will support them throughout their marriage.

Whenever a friend or family member has a new baby girl, the first thing I say is, “Congrats! Now... you need to give them a sister!” I think every girl needs a sister and I believe that because I wouldn’t be who I am today without my sister.

It wasn’t always roses and sunshine growing up...ask my parents, they will tell you. ;-) Picture in your mind the younger sister (me) constantly following around and copying her older sister, Kara. Borrowing her clothes without asking...going so far as to actually take the clothes and change at school. When she found out I was taking her clothes, her response surprised me. She said, “If anyone compliments your outfit you have to tell them they are MY clothes.” I know there were many times we annoyed each other and everyone around us. (My parents nodding yes, yes this is true).

As we got older, our relationship changed. As Kara and I both love cheesy quotes, this is one that sums us up perfectly, “Fate Made us Sisters, Hearts Made us Friends.”

I followed my older sister to Arizona a few years after her and we had the best time living together. Again, not always roses and sunshine. If you know Kara well, you know she is a very neat and tidy person. Me, not so much. When I was about to move out to AZ, she called me concerned one night asking if I was planning on making my bed when I moved in? I said, “Sure, I’ll make it, but if I don’t, can’t we just shut the door?” She said, “Well, it’s just that your room is the room everyone sees when they walk into the apartment and it will seem smaller if the door is shut.” Needless to say, I’ve made my bed Every. Day. Since.

Kara truly is my very best friend. There is no one that knows me quite the way my sister does. She is my favorite person to laugh with and someone I can always turn to. Our family has faced a lot of trials, and just knowing that she knows what I am going through gives us both strength to carry through. Kara is an amazing woman and she deserves a wonderful man. I am so happy she has found that in Bart.

In the past there were times I knew that the person Kara was dating wasn’t right for her, but as a sister, you just stand by them and love them through it. You don’t judge, you just make sure you are there for them when they realize this on their own. Kara has always known exactly what she wanted and needed, she just didn’t always know she knew it.

When I first met Bart, I knew there was something different about him. It’s not that Kara changed, it’s that she finally felt comfortable truly being herself. Bart has brought out the very best in her. He knows how to balance her, to challenge her, and sometimes to tell her just how ridiculous she is acting. He knows how to love her exactly where she is.

Good things definitely come to those who wait. I could not have asked for a better man for my sister than Bart. He is a faithful man, a wonderful father to Maddox and Ava, and I know he will be an amazing husband who will love Kara unconditionally. I am honored for Bart to be my brother-in-law and uncle to Ted.