She Has a Sister to Take Care of Her

Bits and fits.

When there is an infant in the house, daily chores are completed in bits and fits.

During one such fit of kitchen cleaning activity, our once-content baby began to stir in her seat. Knowing the “baby alarm” was about to go off, I started desperately tossing breakfast dishes into the dishwasher like a domestic tornado. This was pretty much my last chance to get the job done before lunch plates compounded the task!

Grunts turned to whimpers. Whimpers built into wails. But I was so close to being done!

Abruptly, the baby alarm went silent.

My head jerked toward the family room and the source of the abrupt silence. Three more cups slammed into place before nurturing instinct overtook productivity mode, and I trotted around the corner in anxious curiosity.

Three-year-old sister looked up and grinned broadly from her position next to the baby seat. Coo-ing, patting and bouncing her now-quiet baby sister, she looked up and said, “It’s okay, Mom. She has a sister to take care of her.”

She has a sister to take care of her.

These past two months have been unforgettable. As the family adjusted to life with our twelfth infant, we also jumped head-long into organizing and delegating all the tasks necessary for our first child to be married.

But don’t you worry — -We’ve had sisters to take care of us!

Some of those were sisters through blood who restocked our baby girl clothes, shopped for and transported bridal shower gifts, and arrived post baby birth armed with minute-to-win-it games and lasagna.

Others were sisters through marriage who showed up with preschooler entertainment on laundry day so I could take a nap. Sisters (and brothers too!) stepped forward to make wedding bouquets, wedding cakes, and to put up and take down reception decor.

Another group were church sisters who brought meals, taught preschool, ran children to piano lessons, took hundreds of pictures, threw a bridal shower, worked in the reception kitchen, and sat with our baby so I could help the bride on her wedding day.

Even our grocery cashier, who used to babysit the bride, volunteered a beautiful wooden arch to stand over the wedding cake!

I needed sisters! I needed help in a HUGE way, and our Heavenly Father answered my prayers by sending in the troops — -from teenagers to empty nesters and every age in between.

Serving and lifting people as much as I would like has become tricky in the past decade. However, what I learned from the past two month’s Army of Angels is that everyone can do SOMEthing…..including me.

“As we contemplate with reverence and awe how our Savior embraces us, comforts us, and heals us, let us commit to become His hands, that others through us may feel His loving embrace.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “You Are My Hands”, April 2010 general conference)

Sisters and brothers, thank you for being His hands. Our family has felt the love of our Savior through you!

And thank you for motivating me to “go and do thou likewise”. (Luke 10:37)