Growing our Family: The Gift of a Sibling

Just about a year ago, I wrote a post to the baby I had recently learned would be joining our family. In it, I described the painfully bittersweet emotions I was experiencing as I worked to connect with this new baby and relish my second pregnancy with the same vigor I did my first. I had this overwhelming sense of anxiety related to sharing my love for my first child with another baby. “How would I be able to divide myself between the two of them?” was the thought that kept recurring in my head …  And my greatest fear was that Jane would resent us and the baby.

If only I could go back in time and talk to the woman I was one year ago. I wish I could reassure that newly pregnant version of myself to slow my thoughts, to ease my worry, and to see my child as the nurturing and loving little girl she had become.

The Love Between Siblings

siblingFrom the moment Charles arrived, Jane has loved him. Before seeing the two of them together, I thought that deep, unimaginable, immediate love was shared only by a parent with his or her child. But when I saw the gentle ease with which she held him that first time, and I heard her sweet voice coo to him just before she brushed his cheeks with her lips, I knew that there is another pair who shares that sort of love. Siblings.

National Siblings Day

This Friday marks the first National Siblings Day for our growing family where Jane is a big sister to her little brother Charles. I tell Jane all the time that there are so many things about her that I love, but what I love most is how deeply she loves her brother. I love that when she wakes up in the morning, the first thing she asks is “Where’s my baby?” I love that she tells him jokes and thinks he finds her the funniest kid alive. I love that she says she misses him when she is at school. I love that she holds his hand in the car. I love that she calls him her best friend. And I love how he looks at her.

She is his hero, his ally, his protector, his funny bone. She is his sister.

And he is the greatest gift we will ever give her.

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