Introducing a guest author

My family has four girls and one sister-in-law. We are spread across a state and one lives in Texas. The tree oldest have married children, while the one sister-in-law has little children under the age of five. And the baby… Well our little peach is finally engaged and soon to be married, this year!

This weekend my baby sister went wedding dress shopping. Because there is such an age gap from the three older sisters to the youngest, there are no sisters her age to go shopping with. And then there’s the “if you invite one and not another…”. So her adopted sister took my mother to the airport and went shopping with her. This friend is a part of my sister’s adult life more than I because of her age proximity. They did college and adult life in more sequential moments. While my little sister was a flower girl at my wedding some 27 years ago, I doubt she’d let me do anything but pin flowers on the proper vests and lapels. So the adopted sister it is.

My expectant daughter will celebrate her first Mother’s Day this year. She has a dear older “sister” friend that we were honored to have give a devotional at her baby shower.

Many of us have adopted grandmothers, adopted mothers, and adopted uncles, some of us are blessed to have friends that become as close as a sister. Affton is this for my daughter. Her children are ages 10-5 and she can fill in that motherly “gap ” that exists between when I had children and when my daughter will soon have hers.

Just as my sister’s friend fills in the generation gap in our family, Affton has filled in the gap for my daughter. This gap is not to be feared, but rather embraced. You see, I have always decided that a friend of my daughter’s is a friend of mine. So I am excited to spend time with this young mother whenever that i can. Her mentor ship for my daughter is blessed and beautiful.

Affton has been a friend of my son-in-law’s family for a number of years. She was a close friend before Yolanda came along. Their friendship blossomed during the courtship years and her family were the host couple/family at the wedding just two years earlier. Affton has been home schooling her three children and her involved in many leadership roles in the young church that they all attend.

I am so excited to share this devotional with you, my readers. “The Hope of Spring” will follow up this introduction in just a few days. I hope that you all find some special friend that is like a sister to thank this week. Siblings are blood blessings, but adopted sister’s can fill a need where generational gaps leave voids. I have several close friends of my own that are as close as sisters to me and my life would not be the same without them.