It's December 31st, I'm sitting on my couch with my feet up and enjoying a cup of coffee and the sound of two girls laughing while playing Yahtzee at our kitchen table. The snow is falling , the air is cold outside, but my heart is warmed by the sight in front of me. Two young girls without natural sisters by birth, yet they took on one another.Loving each other as sisters.
My daughter has longed for a sister for some years now. Sandwiched between two brothers, she often has voiced her desire for a major need for "girl time." Last summer was my daughters first year at camp. She was entering her freshman year in high-school and bravely took on the endevour to go to a youth camp in California. There is where she met a Senior girl from her youth group.
My daughter laughs now at how they never knew each other before camp. Even though they both attended the same church . The beautiful senior that week painted my daughters nails, braided her hair the whole trip and trailed her along wherever she went. As the week ended at camp this beautiful 18 year old told my 14 year old, " I have always wanted a sister, you are like the little sister I never had."
Since the summer these two girls have called each other back and forth, gone to the mall, taken hikes together, and done sleepovers, even taken her caroling with the college group at church. This young gal has become to my daughter like the sister she has never had. I tell my daughter quite often , "Sometimes when we don't have family members in life we long for , we adopt them!" It is a great reminder that God see's and knows just what we need.
Today I asked the girls to remind me how many years they were apart. They told me there is four years between them. I then told the girls,"when I was just my daugher's age,I also had a 19 year old at the time adopt me too. She was my neighbor across the street who had grown up with since age 4. For some reason in my teens we bonded like sisters. She adopted me and I adopted her. We are like sisters to this day, calling each other every other day or so and getting together when we can."I don't know if she will ever truly know how she helped me as a young teen. I was lonely and there she was, treating me just like the sister I needed.
Sometimes life gives us sisters by birth, sometimes it doesn't. But there is always someone out there who can use one, who knows it may be you! I am so thankful for my friend/ sister who adopted me as her own in my teens. I am so very thankful for this beautiful senior in high school who has adopted my daughter as if she was her very own sister.
My question this new year is who needs me ? Who needs you? You could make a huge difference in someones life.Someone younger than you or older.An elderly person who has lost a spouse, or a child who has lost a parent. Before you panic, say you don't have money or embrace legal paperwork, don't worry. It is an adoption of the heart to love as brothers.
Even in church we can be lonely, and why? If we each take the time to invest in one lonely brother or sister, what difference would that make? I can only encourage you by saying there is a 14 year old girl in my home that it has made the world of difference to. There is a 18 year old young woman in my home who is modeling a beautiful example to me this new year.There are too many lonely to not adopt someone. So this New Year, Go ahead and adopt somebody !
