Sister

Some years ago I remember my pastor at Irvine Presbyterian Church, Mark Roberts, preached a sermon where he used an illustration about his kids. The particular point he was making at the time was the joy that God the Father takes in us his children when we love one another. Pastor Mark described the scene in the hospital when his daughter Kara was born. Older brother Nathan, upon meeting Kara for the first time, leaned in, gave her a hug and said, "Baby Kara." This brought tears to Mark's eyes as he witnessed the love Nathan had for Kara.

I always thought this was just a sweet little story and for some reason it's always stuck in my head. It has to have been at least 10, maybe as many as 15 years since I heard this sermon. Yesterday, I got a taste of the proud papa moment that Mark enjoyed in the hospital all those years ago when Adeline and Alan were looking at pictures we have up on our fridge. Adeline pointed to the ultrasound pictures of Pink Floyd and said, "Sister." Now occasionally when we would pass by the fridge together I would casually mention to Adeline that those fuzzy black and white photos were "your sister", but I never emphasized it and didn't really think she was picking it up. But then to hear out of the blue little Adeline look at the pictures of her sister and call her "sister" - not "baby" or anything else - really moved me. And I know she knows that it means something, because she's really beginning to understand who people are and a little bit about her relationship to them. She knows people have names - like Adeline, Beckie, Sophie, etc. - and that we call more than one person "aunt" or "cousin". So now when we point to my belly we don't just say "baby", we say "Adeline's baby sister".

*but we don't say her name because we're not quite ready yet for Adeline to spill the beans ;-)