A Tale of Two "Sisters"

Almost eleven years ago, I took my cutie-patootie four year old Maggie to get her first American Girl doll with my little sister and her two daughters.  I wasn't 100% positive back then, but I had a strong hunch that Maggie would be my only daughter.  When she was born, we had chosen her name to be Margaret Rose but before making it official, I had a little moment of panic and realized that if she was our only girl, I wanted to include Mary in her name to honor Our Lady.  That's how she became Margaret Rosemary and my prediction of her being the only girl seems to have come true *she types hesitantly knowing that things can still happen at the ripe old age of 43*.  

Being sandwiched in between so many boys has made Maggie awesome in so many ways, but she still prayed for a baby girl every time I was pregnant.  It just wasn't meant to be!  Luckily, she is able to call those two female cousins (one older and one younger) her "sisters" and has been following in the path of her older cousin her whole life.  They went to the same schools, played the same sports, danced Irish Step together, push themselves to be top of the class, and enjoy being around each other as much as possible.  Just like her big cousin, Maggie was asked to play up to the Varsity Volleyball team as a freshman after their middle hitter got injured.  Our whole family was there in full support of her first game, and she killed it!  Both Maggie and her cousin even got a shoutout in the local paper from that game.  She now practices with Varsity and plays for JV since their hitter came back, and she is loving life.  

Look at those sweet girlies...

...turned into killer volleyball players!

I thank God every single day for the friendship between my kids and their cousins, something I never had as my cousins all lived far away, but especially for Maggie's "sisters" who surround her as good influencers and best friends.  God certainly provides.