Sunday, February 5, 2012

One of my greatest blessings




Four and a half years ago my little family (husband, self, and one daughter) moved to Oregon for a new chapter in our life. A year later, one of my sisters moved to the same town, the same ward boundaries, only 1/3 of a mile away! My sister Amy is one of my greatest blessings and I would like to share with you how wonderful she is. These reasons are in no particular order.

Amy is incredibly generous and thoughtful. For example, we were both getting ready to leave for the holidays, me for a six-day driving trip, she for a 12-or-something-like-that-day flying trip. And she has four children. Yikes! But despite her greater need for assistance, she offered to let me kids come over and play so I could get ready for our travels. She has us over for dinner, buys me the occasional chocolate, helps me with anything I ask, makes me lovely jewelry, the list is truly endless.

Amy is also a good example of many things: mothering, being a friend, dressing and accessorizing, hospitality, and spirituality, among others. My sister is one of those creative people who is also very organized. Her home is a comfortable place to visit. Her children are well-behaved, and she's often doing a fun new project or something with them. They love to play with her and spend time with her. And Amy always looks put together. She inspires me to be better in so many aspects of my life.

Living close to my sister gives me more insight into myself too. As we were raised in the same house by the same parents, we often have a similar view of things, but of course not entirely. At varying times we've been able to run together, and I really enjoyed our conversations during those runs. Amy keeps up-to-date on national and international affairs better than I do, and I always felt more educated and/or enlightened after our running discussions. We once drove to and from Seattle for a sister's weekend trip. The drive was five hours long. I wondered if we could find enough conversation for 10 hours of driving, seeing as we see each other so often, but we did! It wasn't even difficult. Amy is great about learning more about who she is with, helping a person feel comfortable talking about themselves with her.

And yet after sharing all this with you, I still feel like I haven't approached how much is means to me to have Amy close by. The best way I can express it is that she is a true friend, and that means a great deal to me. She knows my strengths and weaknesses, and not only loves me, but still wants to be with me despite knowing many of my faults. My life is much happier and richer having Amy in my life.

Sadly, I don't have any pics of Amy, but you can check her out at her blog.

4 comments:

Michael Family said...

Aww, that is wonderful! I love Amy too. And I love you!

Amy said...

LOVE the picture you used for this post- the "sisters" bit in that movie is so awesome (especially when bing crosby and danny kaye do it!). sisters are truly wonderful. so glad you have amy around :)

amydear said...

Gosh, thanks. I'll send you a check for talking me up. I love the song "Sisters, Sisters" but that movie is so silly. And why didn't you post a photo of me when I was pregnant with Kate and looking like a whale? : )

Amanda said...

sisters. Yep. Got four of them, and I'm trying to convince them to move to Costa Rica for exactly the reasons you mention.