sisters sealed

i just wanted to mention here just how much avery and june love each other. when we decided to have a fifth child it was for a few key reasons. one of those reasons was in hopes of getting avery a sister to grow up with; to share with; to laugh with; to do hair with; to commiserate about brothers and parents with. you get the picture. i knew from a previous experience -- that i will share at some point -- that we were having a girl long before i was even pregnant. and so when the ultrasound technician told us that, in fact, it was a girl i was filled with joy for avery and for june. that they would have each other for time and all eternity.

the idea of eternity is an interesting one. usually we only think of it a uni-directional -- going on forever forward. but if eternity is really eternity that it is one eternal round, meaning that it goes on forever forwards as well as forever backwards. this can start to trip up the human mind and i don't have any general authority quotes on it either, but i feel something telling me that if my family is eternal now it always has been in some weird time-does-not-exist-God-way. which means that june and avery were always connected, always sisters somehow. we were always a family. whether or not it's exactly true, i like to think of it this way. it makes us feel even more eternal to me. like we just met back up here on this earth instead of just coming together for the first time.

and so june and avery. the first time june smiled it was at avery. devan, avery, and june had been sitting on our bed one morning enjoying each other's company. devan had tried to get june to smile at him many times, but she wasn't doing it. at one point he said that he called her name and smiled at her and she looked over at him, but didn't smile. then she very deliberately turned her head towards avery and looking into her eyes, smiled for the first time. devan said it was an incredible moment because he could see them connect to each other. like their spirits connected. or reconnected i would like to say.

they've been great friends to each other. there is no better big sister than avery. not anywhere that i've seen at least. avery has cared for, loved, played with, and helped june very consistently and with incredible love since the day of june's birth. avery has never been jealous of june, but has felt a great responsibility to show june the ropes of living with all these boys and a sometimes very difficult mother. :) june, for her part, loves avery the most. when she was just months old she would respond so well to avery's singing and cuddling. if june was upset i could pass her over to avery and avery had the magic powers to help june feel happy again. it was amazing to watch.

this is an incredible thing to watch. avery is so loving towards june that it often reminds me of how Christ cared for the people in his life. i believe this beginning -- so much of which can be attributed to avery's good and kind heart -- will lead to a lifetime of friendship between these two girls. i hope one day june will get to watch these days of her childhood again so she can re-know just how much avery loved and cared for her. cause it's been a gift to watch.

avery has shown me God so many, many days.