As a little boy of three years old, I came home from the preschool for the handicapped one day in early spring and announced to my parents that I knew what I wanted for Christmas that year – a baby sister.
We were living in the small rural village of Mill City in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania where my dad had been pastoring a flourishing church for nearly two years.
The reason for my abrupt announcement to expand our family of four was because one of my classmates at school recently had a new addition to his family and I wanted to share in the excitement of having a newborn baby around.
Since I already had a big brother, who was going on five years old, I decided that a sister was what I needed.
Besides, my brother was very active and I had a hard time keeping up with him due to my cerebral palsy. So I figured if my mother had a baby, I would have a captive audience to keep me occupied.
Being such a young lad, I didn’t quite understand exactly how babies were made. I just thought if I put my order in early enough, my little sister would arrive in time for Christmas.
My parents tried explaining that I couldn’t order a sister the way you did a part for your vehicle. But how do you tell a small child, who had only recently been potty trained, about the birds and the bees.
However, my resolve did not wane. I continued to make my wishes known to my parents at every opportunity. I was determined to have my new sister wrapped like a gift under the tree that Christmas.
My parents finally conceded the fact that I was not going to give up on my dream of having a baby sister, so they decided to approach it from a different prospective.
Reaching down to caress my little cheek, my mother asked, “What if we have a boy?”
I refused to accept it.
Looking up at her with my big blue eyes, I said, “No! I prayed that I was going to have a little sister. So you are going to have a girl, not a boy.”
Although, my parents were thinking of adopting a little girl because their medical doctor said my mother would be unable to have anymore children.
But what do doctors know?
Another family physician told them the exact same thing before I was born, which is why they adopted my brother shortly after his birth. But 13 months later, I arrived on the scene.
My parents and I knew “The Great Physician.”
It didn’t matter if my mother was barren like Hannah in the Old Testament. God blessed her with a child in His timing. If He could answer Hannah’s prayer, then He could certainly answer mine.
Little did my parents know, my mother was in fact pregnant; and her due date was close to Christmas.
The Bible says in Mark 10:27, that “with men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” And it was true. I was a miracle child because I was not supposed to be born, so I figured that it could happen again.
As the months passed, my excitement grew right along with my mother’s stomach. I couldn’t wait until Christmas. We were going to have a new baby just like Joseph and Mary did on that blessed night so long ago.
The only difference is that I was determined to have a sister and not a brother.
However, Christmas had come and gone and my disappointment began to show. I begged my mother not to take the tree down with all its splendor. After all, I had prayed for my sister to arrive in time for the holiday season.
Shortly after the new year, in God’s perfect timing, my new sister made her entrance on planet earth. Weighing in at seven pounds 11 ounces, she was 21 inches long and had green eyes with peach fuzz for hair.
Ecstatic the day she came home from the hospital, I couldn’t take my eyes off my brand new sister. After being the youngest child in the family for so long, I was eager to be a big brother.
I couldn’t wait until she grew big enough to lead her by the hand wherever we went and teach her all the things that I already knew. She became my very best friend during our growing up years.
Since she has become an adult, that special relationship has grown to include her two children, Ashley and Michael West.
And, since they moved to Sampson County in 2000, it gave me the opportunity to renew that special bond I share with my sister as well as develop a deeper relationship with my niece and nephew.
I have since discovered that my sister keeps her Christmas tree up until after her birthday in the early part of January just like I wanted to do when she was born.
When I mentioned it to my mother, she said we didn’t have an artificial tree back then and besides she wanted to get the tree down before my sister came into the world.
Not long ago when the family gathered at my parents’ house for Sunday dinner, my sister found the lemon meringue pie especially for me hidden in the refrigerator and took a few peaks off the meringue for a taste test.
When I complained about it, she reminded me that I had ordered her.