Motherhood Sisterhood - a novel ;)

In anticipation of the upcoming move of my only relative in UT, I decided to say "yes" to a babysitting request that would span Saturday morning to Sunday evening. Jill, my sister and good friend, and her family will be packing up and moving to ?? wherever her husbands occupation takes him this summer. I thought that babysitting for an extended period of time would give me my fill of them and I would be able to part with them peacefully.

However, I am afraid it might have the opposite effect on me now.

There is something to be said about the difficulty in going from one to four overnight. There is also something to be said about the constant need for attention, love, reassurance, correction, and more attention of those four little ones. It is exhausting.

And yet, at the end of such an experience, it leaves one feeling empty when they go back to their one. One mouth to feed all day, one attention to entertain, one heart to love and reassure, and no correction (she's too young - at this point I consider it more reminding than anything).

Such an experience is an eye openner to the challenges that lie ahead in parenthood. (As Chad said at the end of the ordeal, "That was WAY harder than I thought it would be!")

Such an experience makes one happy (and hopeful) that they come one at a time into this world.

And such an experience made me realize how fast they grow up (though it doesn't seem fast enough at the time).

So, now here I sit with feelings of gratitude that my daughter sleeps in until 9 on good days and I am responsible for one; yet sorrow at the thought that my cute second family will be leaving me soon. The sister who let me live with her when I ventured out to a new land after highschool. The sister who let me escape to her house on weekends in between the stresses of weekday college life. The sister who left bags of groceries on my table when I was a (literal) starving student. The sister who hopped into a car at some unearthly hour in the morning to be at the hospital when my first was born, bearing gifts. A sister who earned my degree as much as I did, though hasn't yet received her own.

Selfless in every way, my sister has taught me to be a better me. And now I finish the process with the help of my hubby and child(ren).

To say the least, I will miss you Jill. And your cute little family.

And I have NO IDEA how you keep up with them!!!