My JoJo

Happy Birthday today to one of my very most favorite people in all the world--my baby sister Jody.

JoJo is the one who when we were very young shared a room with my other younger sister while my oldest sister and I each had our own separate rooms, yet when bedtime rolled around, she would always ask if I would sleep in her room with her and let Amy have my room (and I usually agreed.) I'm sure I never gave it a second thought way back then, but looking back, I guess we had a special connection from the very start.

JoJo is the one who I always wanted to take care of when she was little, not because she couldn't take care of herself and not even necessarily because she was the baby of the family, but because she was just so precious, and I loved her so much.

JoJo is the one whose hair I would style every morning before school during the 1 year we were in high school together. She let me do whatever I wanted to it and never complained, and something about that was fun for both of us.

JoJo is the one who went EVERYWHERE with me when I was old enough to drive and she was not yet. We created the stupidest adventures together and laughed about things that I'm certain no one else would find remotely funny.

JoJo is the one who every summer would purchase with me 5 of the tackiest matching outfits we could find--one for each day of camp. One year, said outfits included neon green and neon orange overalls with matching caps and socks. Don't be jealous.

JoJo is the one who bought us turbo glasses so that we could look extra ridiculous when we were riding our crazy hand-me-down go-cart that was falling apart and looked like something that had been pieced together from a trash-heap. But hey, it worked. ;-)

JoJo is the one who for about 20 minutes carefully climbed the fence with barbed wire at the top so that we could have a picnic at our high school's football stadium and then basically leapt over that same fence in about 6 seconds when the alarm went off. :-D

JoJo is the one who sent me the most amazing letters when she lived in Singapore with my parents for about a year and a half. Most of them made me laugh out loud the whole time I was reading, but there were also the few that made me cry just because I missed her so much.

JoJo is the one who found ways to form special bonds with my babies and keep them strong even though she lived about 14 hours away from them for their entire lives until recently.

JoJo is the one who gave me 4 extra babies to love, and OH, how I love them!

JoJo is the one who knew just from the sound of my voice during a phone conversation one day in the fall of 2005 that I needed her closer to me than Texas even though I said nothing of the sort. I later found out that immediately after our phone conversation, she called my Mom and booked airline tickets for both of them and my baby nephew Ty to come see me a few days later. It was one of the best surprises of my entire life and ended up being exactly what I needed at the time.

JoJo is the one who decided that it would be epic fun to come to Nashville when it was finally time for me to move from there to Vermont and make that looooooooong road trip with me. And as soon as she learned that I don't care much for driving, she offered to drive the entire time and then did just that. We had SO much fun!

JoJo is the one who got one tiny glimpse of my life in Vermont during the very short time she was here after that road trip and decided it was something she and I needed to share.

JoJo is the one whose entire family moved up here a little over a year after I did so that we can do just that. (Special thanks to my bro-in-law Jon for being on board with this plan and helping make it happen just as quickly as he could. :-D)

JoJo is the one who can make me laugh like crazy, crazy every single time we're together, but she'll also cry with me if that's what I need.

JoJo is the one that I'm so thrilled to share amazing adventures with here in Vermont hopefully living about 5 miles away from each other (or possibly even a little closer eventually) for the rest of our lives. I don't know that I've ever been so excited about life in general. I'm pretty sure my favorite time of life is yet to happen, and I'm absolutely certain that my JoJo will be a huge part of that.

Love you with all my heart, Jo. So glad you're here.