31 Days: Big Brothers Are The Best

Families come in all shapes and sizes.  My husband's family is small and my family is pretty large.  

I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters.  

When I came along, my brothers were already out of the house, so it was just us girls. In a tiny house with only one bathroom.  My poor Daddy! Ha!

So, I don't have the memories of bonding with my brothers. 

When I read the essay sent to me by another of my nieces, Hannah, it brought tears to my eyes! She and her big brother are so close, and I love that.  (I did, by the way, ask him to participate, but he is a pretty private guy!)

I call the big brother in question, "my first baby boy". It's probably because of him that I decided that I only ever wanted to have sons.  Since both of my sisters are older than I am, he was born when I was 16, and I loved on him all the time. He is the one who gave me my family nickname, "Nanny". 

Usually, that is a name reserved for a grandparent, but it stuck and I have been Nanny or Nan ever since. 

Hannah is a culinary student and loves to cook and create delicious desserts.  She has been baking since she was very young.  I am so proud of her!

Here is her view on what it is like to have a big brother.

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I’m notoriously clumsy, it’s probably safe to say that I have spent almost as much time on the ground from tripping on my own two feet as I have spent actually upright on my feet, I even fell at my high school graduation. And it’s not just falling that is the problem, one time in the eighth grade I ran into the metal door of the gym at school and knocked half my front tooth off, I know…who does that!?

It didn’t happen immediately, but about 2.5 seconds after realizing that half of my tooth was no longer attached I started bawling, like out of control, ugly, full on wailing. And it wasn’t that I was in pain, it was just that I knew I was going to be a half-toothed hick for the rest of my life, that’s all I could think about. I didn’t know what to do at the time, so I started walking inside the school, somewhat disoriented from the ridiculous emotional mess I was, and made my way to the high school library where I knew my older brother was, who was a senior at the time, and just stood outside the door. I didn’t want to actually go in because my blubbering was loud and I just knew the librarian would kick me out and I really didn’t want to embarrass my brother.  So I stood there not really knowing what to do until the door opened and one of my brothers friends came out, she took one look at me and I’m certain she wanted to run from the unstable mess that was standing there, but instead, she turned back in the door and said, “Colby, your sister is out here crying.” So much for not embarrassing him…but if he was embarrassed he didn’t show it. He came out in the hall, and let me know things were going to be okay, he’s always been good at that, not like he has any experience with dramatic girls after growing up in an almost all-girl family. Needless to say, he called my dad and I ended up getting my tooth fixed that day and only had to show four people my ‘half-tooth hick’ self.

Isn’t this is what family is about? When you’re down, your family is there to pick you up, help you dust your rhinestones off, and help you on get on your merry little way. Our family in particular has always been so very good about this, no matter what the case, family is always there to help you pick yourself up, and to laugh it off. That’s the biggest blessing about our family, no matter where we’ve been or what has happened in the time we were there, we are always able to pull each other up and bring joy back to each other’s lives, because after all, in the words of Princess Diana, family is the most important thing in life.

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We do pick each other up and do our best to keep each other up, too.

Yes, that is what family is all about.