My Sister, Mym

This post isn't about Malawi but about my sister, Mym, who, along with many others, helped me get to Malawi.

She is the little girl on the right with the big grin and oh, so happy! (This picture always makes me smile - I'm smiling right now just looking at her). The Gator is one of her toys...isn't that cool? She keeps it at the beach house in OBX which, by the way, is rented out during the summer months if you are interested...

My sister is 3 years younger than me but many years wiser. I was thinking today of all of the times she has been there for me throughout our lives. Through my marriages and successive divorces; at my side during post-partem blues and we lived a thousand miles apart, too, I'm not talking about her running next door with a casserole. Whenever she found out I could use some extra money, she sent it. When I had to ask her for money, she sent it - and never as a loan, always as a gift to me. She was there for me after an ugly custody battle (I lost) and helped me to reunite with my child 5 years later. She supported me through an embarrassing legal issue with words that I'll never forget, "we can't all be like June Cleaver...". She and her friend offered to take in my son during one of his rough teen times - who does that? The list goes on.

And when I asked her for support to go to Malawi, she sent a big fat check and lots of encouragement. I have a new goal, to join the Peace Corps, and you know what she sent to support that goal? She sent an affidavit that she will be responsible for my unpaid debt (there won't be any but still...) for the 27 months of unpaid service as a volunteer in the Peace Corps along with an offer to use her place upon my return until I get resituated in the U.S of A.

When I received the affidavit today, I realized just how much I appreciate her. As her older sister, she always believed that I was smart, that I was pretty, that I was cool....she still does, or at least she still pretends to. And you know what? I have something she doesn't have, I have her for my sister. I want to be just like her when I grow up. I love you, Mimi!