My two favorite people on earth
Last week, I was home alone with the girls. While I was in the kitchen cooking, Rachel fell down and started to cry. Before I could move to help her, Anya was already by her side, holding her face to her chest, telling her it was okay. It was such an amazing act of compasion. A few minutes later, Anya got Rachel to smile, and I snapped this picture with my camera phone:
It startles me every day just how capable Rachel and Anya are of acts of tremendous love and kindness. They’re only about a year and a half old, and yet they have learned to comfort each other and to comfort us. I’m watching the bond between them grow every day — the twin “bond” people talk about isn’t supernatural, just a strong connection between two people who have never known a time apart from their sister. We were in Target over the weekend, and I took Anya on one cart to pick up half of our supply list, and Tina took Rachel on another car to get the other half.
All during our time away from the rest of the family, Anya kept saying: “Mama, Sissy, Mama, Rachi?” over and over again, obviously puzzled why her mother and sister were away from us. And Tina reported when we reunited that all Rachel said was: “Daddy, Anya?”
As I sit here apart from Tina and the girls, I feel a similar absence. I miss them and look forward to seeing them again in a few short hours. But the wait, the delay, is becoming unbearable.
