On Being Sisters

For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; 

and His truth endureth to all generations.Psalm 100:5

Some milestones are made for celebrating and my youngest sister celebrated a milestone birthday this month!

You could say that we are all now officially “old” although I would repeat that at your own risk!

One might even say that I am the oldest. I choose to say I am the firstborn.

I am the firstborn of four girls in my family.

No boys, just girls. 

And everything you might imagine that goes along with that.

Even thinking about it is exhausting... four girls!

Various ages and multifaceted temperaments.

Yet we all made it safely to adulthood.

And we survived that journey in two bedrooms and one bathroom!

Don’t let that fact get lost.

We lived life from bobby pin curls in our hair to the much more comfortable sponge rollers later on.

We made the transition from baby dolls to Barbie dolls by recycling the same dolls from sister to sister.

Our dad built a doll house for our Barbie dolls once.  Mom decorated it.

It was huge; laid out on the floor like a blueprint with walls.

The house lasted until there was a fight and one of us ended up right in the middle of the house. 

One family car.  And one driver most of our years at home. And he worked an 8-5 job! So thankful for neighbors with cars who didn't mind adding a few more passengers on rainy days!

For 16 years there was a Taylor girl at our elementary school. The school was brand new when we started attending, and after 16 years, teachers may have come and gone, but those Taylor girls were still a part of the place.

For convenience, when there was a need to shop downtown, mom would load us all up on the city bus that stopped in front of our house, and we would spend the day with her.

Anytime we all went anywhere together, you could be certain that we got lots of attention. 

My mother was quite a seamstress, and made most of our clothes, as well as our dolls!

My father worked for a wholesale distributor, in the dry goods department.

He kept her supplied in fabric since the bolts of material with faults in them were given to him.

Our dresses may not have been the same style, but they were often the same fabric.

Four girls could be confusing enough to keep straight, but when the two youngest were dressed alike? Rely on it!

Four girls, one phone, and that one line was on a party line with our next door neighbor! 

Me:  Mr. A, I'm sorry but I need the phone.  It's an emergency.
(The emergency was trying to get a ride to some event at the school, and when Mr. A showed up at the door to find out what the emergency was, my parents were not amused)

All our names began with D, including the pets we took into our home.

And to continue the trend, we included our parents, Daddy and De-mama.

The differences in our ages were thirteen years, but because of the way we were spaced apart, our parents had teenage girls in the house for eighteen years!!

All of us played the flute.  All of us were in the symphonic and marching bands in high school.

That made thirteen years of high school football games and band concerts.

There was always a lot of activity going on at our house, from science projects to puppy births, our life was never dull (although I think I remember a lot of complaints of boredom just the same).

Female hormones pretty much ruled the day, and we all made our Dad feel very special for putting up with it.

I don’t think he ever complained about it.

Actually, I think he enjoyed being the only guy in the house!

Like any family, our lives were not picture perfect. 

There were some hard situations that we went through.

Thankfully we have grown up with an understanding of God’s love and forgiveness, and through the years, He has deepened our relationship with Him and with each other.

I am so grateful for these three special women, wives and mothers that my sisters have become, but I also am thankful that God has blessed us by giving each of us the husbands that we have.  So much like our own dad, they have all realized the unique connection we have and have celebrated our relationships along with us. 

We were all invited to share in honoring this milestone in the life of my littlest sister.
That night, we were given a very special surprise because this littlest sister had an old tape recording from a birthday party of hers.

A party decades in the past.

I did not recognize the voices at first.

My daddy sounded older somehow than my mind had remembered him.  And the Southern drawl we all had was almost shocking. 

Almost.

But the celebrating? Nothing unfamiliar there!  My, how there was so much talking!  So much joy!
Four girls can make more noise than you might think.

And with our Dad playing Master of Ceremonies, there was of course a lot of laughter!

At the end, there was one sister who had gotten her hands on the recorder after the party had ended.  

She was attempting to interview the birthday girl, and she asked in a very caring voice,
“How do you feel?”

Typical of the shyness that we all have, there was no response, to which the older one said, “She doesn’t like being recorded, but she likes the recorder. And now I’m going to listen to my voice!”

(shy, but a bit of a ham)

Oh yes, looking back now this was a good place where we grew up, surrounded by each other!

Very good.

This new milestone brings another new realization. 

We know that we can’t take each other for granted. 

We know that the years lived mean that there will not be as many years still to come that we will be together.

And we will face that time just like we have faced everything else. 

With God’s grace and love.

It’s good to have sisters.

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On a side note:
Sometimes we say the craziest things.  Things that make no sense to anyone else, but we all understand it completely.  We call it "D Dimension".
We now see it in our offspring... They will thank us for it years from now I'm sure :)

And... we have a mascot.  We decided that the Pixar character Dory fits the bill, and her name starts with a D.

Even in our old age...

____________________________

I love how God calls His church a family.  We have much in common that way.

Sisters might argue, even be mean, but they are a gift that makes it worth the effort to reconcile.

By His grace and with His forgiveness?  

It really is so good to be sisters!

Romans 12:5
So we, though many, are one body in Christ,
and individually members one of another.
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From four "flawless" sisters...