The Rosy Life: Always and forever, Anna

I adore my gals. Both are so vastly different from one another. Being a twin, I'd hardly expect anything else. I've always been the moon to my twin sister's sun. The bread to her butter, the jelly to her peanut butter. Opposites in the most extreme ways you can imagine. "Opposites" gets a bad reputation doesn't it? People twist their mouths around and spit that word out like it's vinegar. I rather like opposites. They make the world a more interesting, eye opening place. They balance the too sour life moments with sweet, the boring days with bold. Would we appreciate one without the other?

I picture my sis and I atop a teeter-totter. Thank goodness for our opposites so she can show me important things like how to organize, run a household, and raise my gals. I need her to bring back down from la-la land every now and then. She is most talented and calm, creative, and such a nurturer. I might be planning the show in my head for days...but without her the show might not ever get on the road sometimes!

What I've learned from a lifetime of being opposite of someone (and others pointing it out over. and over. and over!) is that the little things that make us different should be celebrated, applauded, and taken in with glee. This brings me to Anna Ruth. She has such an enormous personality. Her little frame is bursting at the seams with determination, questions (like Where'd it came from?), adventure (she prefers the ranger, truck, and tractor over anything), and love. My goodness, how this gal can love. When we scoop her up out of the crib in the morning she says "I lost you!", her voice all scratchy and small. "Hi Mah-nee", or "Hi Dada" are as regular around here as the coffee that drips steadily, morning after morning.

She's got a serious side that can't be shaken. Once her blue eyes are locked in on something I can just see the gears starting to crank and turn in her mind.....processing each sight and sound. She asks "What's that sound?" a thousand times a day. I pray her ears are always so open to hearing the music of our world, the cling and clank here, the bird singing it's heart out there. And oh, her love of music! We listen to Kari Jobe, instrumental guitar, or Need to Breathe while she falls asleep. There's been more than one occasion where I've suddenly thought "What's THAT sound?" in an almost panicked way, and then realized it was Anna Ruth howling along in her crib.