Lydia..
Happy 16th, Birthday my darling sis! I love you so much and I’ve been truly blessed over the years by our friendship: We’ve shared the best of times with a few worst ones thrown in. Despite our differences in personality and other things, we’ve always gotten along and, out of all my peers, you are still my closest, my favorite, and my best friend. You still are the only one who can make me let go of my “dignity” enough to do things that aren’t “proper” – and I love that about you. Your exuberance over life and your determination to enjoy it and try new things has been infectious! I love the fact that we always have fun together; that we understand what the other one is thinking; that you are always ready to listen to what I have to say; that you build me up and encourage me to go farther; and that you are always prepared to help me if I ask you! I have few, if any, regrets over our friendship in the past 16 years, because we’ve always ‘clicked’ so well that our disagreements never lasted long.
You have not only been gifted by many talents, but you have taken those and pushed forward and excelled. Your diligence has paid off so much in the formation of excellent habits and I know it will continue to pay off in your life.
You have filled your life with good, biblical and right things and it is so much of a joy to see you grow daily in your walk with God. You are truly becoming a Proverbs 31 woman, and, I have no doubt, one day your future 20+ children will rise up and call you blessed!
My life is filled with memories of the times we’ve spent together, mostly little things but things that will always stick in my mind because we had so much fun together doing them:
~when we were little and Dad told us to clean our room: which was so messy you literally couldn’t see the floor. We got it clean, however, in about 15 minutes. We stuffed everything under our bed and called Dad in for inspection. We thought we were so smart about it all! Several hours later, our room was finally clean.
~playing in our room on summer days with stuffed animals and jump ropes – when we were supposed to be in bed – but hey! we stayed “in bed”, although I still remember and laugh over “the bolt of Tash falls from above”.
~going to the beach and taking long walks with you, playing in our room with pillows, watching movies and making ridiculous comments, dancing in the sand.
~taking “5 minute breaks” in Saturday chores to play a quick game of double solitare or manacala.
~cooking in the kitchen on Saturday mornings while dancing to Bluegrass music; learning how to ball-room dance with you; playing ultimate frisbee together; “snowboarding” down our hill (if at all possible, we’ll do actual snowboarding this year.. on a real hill!)
~our study sessions for Gileskirk and Greek, where we egged each other on with comments on how we’ve got to study because so-and-so said this… and which usually involved more laughter than study.
~our spontaneous late night talks about everyone and everything, the jokes we share together.. and always will because no one else would get them or think them funny.
~all the surprises, parties, crazy ideas and fun things we’ve planned together and executed – some more successfully than others.
~all our long walks and hikes together: talking about this and that.
and so many more that they are almost uncountable…
May the coming years of your life be blessed, full of love for people, abounding grace, and the joy and peace of Christ!
I love you, Lydia!
