This month my youngest sister, Katy, is graduating from high school. I cannot believe it! If this makes me feel old I can only imagine how old my parents must be feeling! In the same week Katy graduates my oldest sister will be having her first child. Talk about life changes! 

Katy was the cutest kid I have ever seen. She was constantly the center of attention as she was the youngest of all the cousins. For many of the older cousins, she was their real-life baby doll!  Katy had a New York-sounding accent that made listening to her little stories entirely enjoyable. Katy loved to sing, dance, make up plays, anything to be in the spotlight.  Katy was made for the stage, unlike her older sister Courtney who peed in her pants in front of hundreds of people during a church play in third grade. Yes, still traumatized by that!

I was talking to my mom about Katy yesterday. I told my mom “I think Katy is my favorite person in the whole family, she will rub my back/arm/head/leg any time I ask her!” If you are sitting next to me, there is a good chance you will be suckered into rubbing my arm. My friends and family seem to have gotten to the point where they are done rubbing me! Not Katy, she will rub my back without  my even asking. When she and Christina were little, I would pay them pennies to rub my back. A lot of the time they would finish their massage and I would say “I’ll just give you the money later”, and of course never did. In honor of her high school graduation I would love to tell her “I will finally pay you for all those massages!!” But I’m afraid that amount would probably compare to my current student loan debt, about $20,000.

One of my favorite “Katy Stories” is from when we lived in Fairfax, VA. Katy would go visit our grandparents almost every weekend and come back home with her belly poking out of her shirt from too much ice cream and an “I want that, give it to me now” attitude. Thats what grandmas are for, to spoil the kids rotten, right? So one day Katy was sitting at the table flipping through a magazine, she couldn’t read yet but you know how kids do that sometimes.  Katy started pulling out all of the subscription postcards that are tucked in the seam of a magazine and throwing them on the ground screaming I HATE THESE DARN THINGS! Obviously Katy had been looking at magazines with Nana over the weekend.

Only being 18 months apart, Katy and Chrissy have always had a very special relationship. They would play for hours in their shared bedroom, only coming out for potty breaks or snacks. They even had code words they would use when the rest of the family was around.  Chrissy would all of the sudden look at Katy and say “chicken?” They would both quietly get up, walk to their bedroom, shut the door, and enter their make believe world. They had different code words for different types of toys. For example chicken=play with stuffed animals. Cow=play dressup etc. Pretty advanced code system for four and five year olds! Isn’t that the kind of sibling every child wishes for? A best friend that you get to live with!  Chrissy would paint Katy’s face, dress her up, and decorate her with clothes pins.

I cannot believe that Katy is now 18 years old and going off to college in the Fall. I consider myself the luckiest of all the sisters because she is attending a college 20 minutes from my house!! I could not be more excited. Isaac and I have already setup a guest bed where she will be staying anytime she needs to get away from college life to hang out with some family.

Congratulations my sweet baby sister, you have made your whole family so proud. You are a beautiful woman with a heart for God and serving others. You already have your mind set on becoming an Orthodontist and I can’t wait to see you excel in that field. Thank you for enriching my life beyond belief! I can’t wait for you to start this new chapter of your life here in North Carolina.