Siblings

I have two siblings.  They are both older than me by 10 and 6 years.  When I was little, the age gap seemed huge.  My brother had his first child when I was in 6th grade.  When I told my teacher I had a niece, she corrected me "I think you probably have a cousin."  No ma'am, my brother's wife had a baby, I have a niece.  There were people in high school who thought I was an only child.  I love my siblings but the age gap makes it hard for us to be close.

Before I had kids, I wanted them to have a close relationships.  I wanted them to be friends.  Ryan and his siblings are close in age and they are good friends as well. Once I started having kids, I kinda forgot about the age gap thing. The first two boys are about 3 years apart.  But there is 5 and 8 years between B and his brothers.

But, as God is wont to do, it is working out pretty well.

Sam and Zac are getting to that friendship place.  Slowly but surely.  They can share the wireless headphones peacably with each other and that's a win.

This past weekend Zac played in a baseball tournament.  He's in a slump and Sunday was rough for him.  Sam was there all day Sunday.  He's not one to yell and cheer but he supported Zac in his own way.  The championship game was particularly rough for Zac.  On the way to the truck, I noticed that Sam had Zac's bag.  Sam saw his brother hurting and tried to lighten his load.

Before the tournament, on Friday night, B had been invited to a birthday party.  We didn't know the family very well but have other friends who do know them well.  B and the little boy get along and the mom knows about B's autism.  I was excited for B to get to go!

Then I checked our calendar.  I had committed to helping with cheer tryouts and Sam had a baseball game.  We don't like the boys to play a game without one of us there if we can help it.  So neither Ryan nor I were available to take B to the party and stay with him.

I approached Zac and asked if he'd be willing to go to the party with B.  He did not hesitate.  Yes ma'am!  The party was a nerf war at our local park.  I bought B his first nerf gun and new camo shirt for the event.  Zac gave him some pointers.  B was super pumped.

By all accounts, Zac was great with him.  The birthday boy's mom had wonderful things to say.  B was happy.  Zac even remembered to snap a picture.

I know this all sounds like a big momma brag but really it's a big ol' God brag.  We don't have to try to engineer everything ourselves.  We have to give it to God and let him handle it.  I pray for my boys' relationships with each other.  God's got it, He's handling it.  I'm so grateful!