I waited twenty three years

I met my sister in a hospital delivery room. Ironically, it was me in the bed, waiting to give birth.
Yep, laying in a hospital bed with one of those fashionable open to the back gowns, connected to an IV pole & a baby monitor was, in my brother's mind, the optimal time to finally let me meet this new girl he had been dating.
As weird as it was for me, my mind was a little preoccupied but that poor 17yrs old girl who walked into my room was a little more than weirded out. Perhaps it wasn't one of my brother's best choices but it has given us both a story to tell of a relationship I had waited 23yrs to begin. A relationship typified by meeting in a hospital delivery room for the first time.
Having grown up with two brothers & hanging out with predominately guys my whole life, the hole that had existed was quickly filled by this equally tomboyish, no drama or frills, female who instantly became the sister I had been waiting for.
That day, she became known as Aunt ReeRee as my children would have to call her something, right?
Fifteen years of memories swirl in my mind & bleed over into one another but as I was on my way to her house yesterday for our annual sister day, the one day a year these two non-shoppers shop for everything Christmas, the recent memories made overwhelmed me. I cried all the way to her house, a fact I'm sure she was aware of from the streaks of missing makeup when I walked through the door.
My sister loves her family so much that this fall she rearranged her entire schedule to fill in, as needed, with a grandmother who loved her & prayed for her by name, even before she knew what that name was. Sister spent every day she had off providing relief & care to someone, that by today's standards, she didn't have to, a grandmother-in-law.  She would work all day on Mondays then spend each Monday evening with gma, doing a bible study with her, trying to glean all the wisdom she could fit in before we would have to say goodbye. Really though, she was NEVER a granddaughter-in-law, but a granddaughter by all meanings of the word.
As I drove to her house yesterday, I cried because I missed gma. I cried because I wanted to pick up the phone & call her & hear her calming reassurance. Then I cried because I realized that God had given me someone who shared similar experiences this fall & whose heart was broken, just like mine. I cried because I knew as soon as I saw my sister, there would be a peace, a comfort in being with someone who understood where I was because she was there too. I cried because I knew she would talk about gma with me & we would laugh about the snarky things she would say. I cried because I know she'll do it all over again with me when the time comes.
She is my sister. And she was worth the wait.