Dear Josie

A Letter to My Baby Sister

Dear Josie,

As your oldest sister and (fairy) Godmother I want to write you a letter to tell you how much I love you and to share some things I want you to know.

To be honest little Tootie, when I found out that I was going to be a big sister (for the seventh time), I was kinda mad. At first.

I was going into my senior year of high-school and I was afraid that Mom and Dad were not going to have enough time for me. I was worried that when you were born all of my needs for moving on to the next stage of my life after graduation were not going to be met if there was another baby in the house. I was very selfish. I told Mom how I felt and she hugged me and cried with me because we were both scared for what it was going to be like to have one more little one around the house. Mom assured me that it was all going to be OK, and that even though there may be hard things that come with new babies, the life of a new child is always a special gift and blessing. After this talk with Mom, I felt much better and I slowly started to get more and more excited for your arrival.

I spent that next nine months waiting for you to come, working hard at school, applying for and visiting colleges and trying to decide what the heck I was going to do with my life. It was kinda a stressful time in my life, but I looked forward to when Mom's midwife would come over to talk with us about how you were doing growing inside of Mom and I especially looked forward to hearing your little heartbeat. The day that you were born was an exciting one; what I blessing it was to be there for your birth and to get to hold your tiny little body just moments after you took your first breaths. When I, (and the rest of the siblings) met you it was such a joyful moment! We were so very happy that you were the newest addition to our crazy family. I remember crying because I was so overwhelmed with joy to meet you.

Soon after you were born, Mom and Dad asked me if I would be your Godmother. I was so honored to be asked because I know that being entrusted to care for you and pray for you in that way is very special and important. I felt really proud that Mom and Dad would trust me with that role in your life. The day that you were Baptized and became an adopted daughter of God and a member of the Catholic Church, I got to hold you and pray for you and commit to helping Mom and Dad when it came to teaching you about how much Jesus loves you. What I beautiful moment that was. I want you to know that I pray for you every single day, that God loves you and is holding you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

The summer after your Baptism, I packed up my bags and left home to go be a missionary for a year. It was so hard to say goodbye to you and to not be with you for the first full year of your life. I missed the whole family a lot, but I missed you the most. I remember coming home for a week during Christmas time and you did not remember who I was and that you did not want me to hold you. That broke my heart because I wanted to be so much a part of your life and to have you know how much I love you. That taught me a good lesson though: that it was going to take more effort on my part to make sure that I was still apart of your life even though I would be so far away from you geographically.

I am basically a professional at being a big sister, but with you it is different, you are 18 years younger then me, and I am not physically in your life as much as I was for our other siblings. I wonder sometimes what it is like for you growing up only having me home during breaks from school. You have never known what it is like to have me around all the time, and sometimes that scares me because I want to be apart of your growing up. But I know that this is a natural part of life, and I am so grateful that you are my little sister and that I am your big sister. I am always so pumped to tell my friends (and even people I barely know) about you because I am so proud of you and I am so excited to see what great things God has in store for your life. It is gonna be kinda fun to see what our relationship will become.

Josie, know that I love you with my whole heart and that no matter where I may be, or where our lives may take us, that I will always be there to pray for you and to support you and that no matter what I will always be your big sister.

Love,

Maddie