Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Long Hard Road

This is my sister and her (new!) fiance:
Oh My Gawd!!!

I had so many more pictures I would have liked to put with this post - but I can't find them. Either my mom has them or they are in the box I can't reach...ugh. Anyway.

In short, my sister is amazing. There is so much about her life I can't tell you, but I can say that its been difficult. Wrong paths taken, the right ones missed by mere moments. But there are wonderful things I can tell you about her.
I've been inspired by her my entire life. She's the most creative person I know - she can sing...and would take your breath away to hear her. She is an actress and I've only missed a few of her plays - but not by choice I can assure you. She'd let me tag along, when she was in college, to all of the homecoming-type activities (Montevallo, AL - Go Purple!) and let me interact with all her awesome, artsy, drama friends. She never made me feel like an outsider. Did I mention that she won best actress more than once in college??
To meet her is to love her. Period.

Over the last 12 years, or so, I haven't seen much of her - and felt that missing part of me constantly. Every time I saw her, for only a few days at a time, I saw something different about her. I knew, though she tried to hide it, that she was sad. Her life was not what she had intended (or what she was meant for). When we are young we think we have all the time in the world, but at some point it hits us that we are running out of time and their may not be any left to fix things. I think she just went through 10 years of realizing it, day by day.
A couple of months ago I saw her for the first time in 3 years - and for once she looked over than the constant 30 that I had in my head. (Ok, that seems old**...but you'd have to know me, lol. For years she was always 26...then the shock came when someone mentioned she was turning 30 and that has where she has stayed in my mind for the last 10 years. Um...sorry Mo :))
Her life was draining her - pushing her to the limits of human capabilities.

She has since left it behind. For hope, for a future...and has someone that she can truly share it with.

She and Jeff dated in high school (and a little beyond) but things ended in a fight...which DOES happen, lol. For 16 years they both led lives that were personally taxing.

But now - They are finally together again (much to the relief and sheer happiness of all their family and friends) and will be getting married January 31st. (I'd also like to mention that this is my first wedding gig...can anyone say EXCITED!?!)

** was reading over this and realized that I made 30 look old - but I'm nearly 30 now myself, so please don't misunderstand. Just to a woman, most of us always want to look 25, you know? Am I making it worse? lol

3 comments:

Four Little Owl's said...

It's good to hear that you two have a relationship again, I like the fact that you are all happy and in a place where happiness can be present.

Jeri Lynn said...

Did you do this photo Kendra it's gorgeous!

Kennis said...

I sure did :). This was taken on Christmas Eve. It was the photo that I framed with a signature mat for their wedding. We had it on the back table and their wedding guests could sign it. I LOVE this pic of them.