Wanted: A Sister

 

Wanted:  A sister

I grew up with three older brothers.  They were 9, 8 and 7 years older than me.  When my oldest brother turned 13, Mom thought it would be good for him to go live on the farm with his dad and learn farming from his grandpa, as this brother had sustained a brain injury at birth and wasn’t really good at school, and she wanted him to have a trade he could fall back on.  The middle brother moved the following year, and, as we were moving to a city further away, my youngest brother wanted to go live on the farm too.  I never got the option.  But I sure missed my brothers and all through my elementary years, I asked my mom over and over for a little sister.  I always got the same answer and an age-appropriate reason to go with it.  “It takes a long time to make a baby.”  Or “you couldn’t play with a baby like you think; it would be years before she was big enough to play with and you would always be way older than her.”    But God didn’t forget that desire of my heart.  It never went away, but I did quit asking.

When I was 13, Mom remarried.  This man had a daughter three years younger than me, but she lived many states away.  When I was 14, she came out to spend the summer with us and at the end of summer, we took a family vacation across the country to take her home.  When I was 15, Dad brought her out to live with us permanently.  It took many years, but I got my little sister!!  

I love how God gives us the desires of our hearts even when we have forgotten them or given up on them.  He knows us so well.  He remembers everything about us.  And he answers prayers—sometimes it takes years, but He is faithful.