Saluting My Siblings: A Lifelong Gift

April 10 is Siblings Day, a day to celebrate God's wonderful gift of siblings. It's totally fitting that most of the family photos of me as a baby include one or more of my siblings. I was my parents' fifth child and over the next 10 plus years, I gained three younger siblings.

 They say I was a whiny baby, but that didn't seem to bother my older sisters and brother.

When we were kids, most of the photos Dad took were on Easter, Christmas or other special days.

In big families, kids are often paired up or grouped together. I always knew my older siblings had my back, even when I was just a little girl.

My big brother Butch knew I was his responsibility. He looked out for me as we got older too. Once he told a guy who wanted to date me, "Hurt my sister and I'll kill you." I think he was serious too!

My sister Debbie was my first roommate and remained my roommate until we got married and left home. Debbie is the closest sister to me in age and our kids grew up together. Although we lived 1,000 miles apart, our kids spent time with each other whenever I went back home to visit.

What a cute sisters picture of the four of us. Kathy and Sue were so much older than me that I didn't spend too much time with them as a kid. 

I once asked my Mom how she handled having so many kids, when just three was sometimes overwhelming to me. She said that each time a new baby was born, she told the next older child that this was their baby to help take care of. So, my younger brother Mike became 'my' baby, just as I had become my older brother Butch's baby.

I have so many fond memories of time spent with Mike. I thought of him as my partner in crime and, as I got older I led him into trouble more than once. Hopefully he forgives me now for not being the best influence in my teen years!

I still think of my brother Pat as my baby brother, even though he's way taller than me now and has five kids of his own. Pat was such a cute baby, but I picked on him a lot when he got a little older. My favorite taunt was, "Pat's got white hair." Sorry for that, Pat, but now it's true!

What a cute group of seven siblings we were back in the day, all dressed in our Easter best. Who knows how we managed to take this photograph with everyone's hair in place and no stains on anybody's clothing! Kudos to Mom and Dad for this picture.

One of the biggest days in my life as a little girl was my First Communion day. Dad took photos of me with each of my siblings and even a couple with Mom, who hated having her picture taken. This is one of the few photos I have of just me with my oldest sister Sue.

This is also one of the few photos I have of just me with my older sister Kathy when I was a kid, although I have more of us together as adults. I always looked up to Kathy, who was a wonderful role model for all of us younger kids.

Just as me, Butch and Debbie were grouped together when I was little, me, Mike and Pat were grouped together when Pat was little. We look like we're cooking up some sort of mischief!

This is one of my favorite photos of what a carefree childhood looked like back in the day. Butch, me, Mike and Pat were just hanging out together on a summer day. Life was so much easier then!

Scouting was a 'thing' in our family. Mom was a Girl Scout leader for many years and Dad was a Boy Scout leader. This back in the day photo of me and Debbie in our Girl Scout uniforms is a great reminder of the values we learned in our family and in scouting. 

And then there were eight. Baby Nancy was born when we lived in Alabama. Like me, Nancy was a whiny baby who was raised in part by her seven siblings. She'll always be the baby to me!

After Nancy was born, Daddy started taking me, Mike and Pat lots of places to get us "out of your Mother's hair." This photo was from one of our many outings with Dad.

Having a little sister so many years younger than me was like having my own live baby doll. This photo was taken when Nancy was just learning to walk. She was a hot mess, getting into everything. I wrote an essay about "Tornado Nancy" for school about this time.

Sunflowers are the state flower of Kansas. That year me, Mike and Pat planted sunflowers in the back yard, Daddy accidentally mowed Pat's sunflower down. Poor Pat was doing the best he could to smile in this photo while holding his mowed-down sunflower to the ground.

Because of the age span in our family, there aren't many photos of the eight of us together. This one was taken for Christmas card photos in 1974, the year before Debbie and I got married.

The five sisters on my wedding day in June 1975.

What a crazy posed photo of me with my brothers on my wedding day!

A back in the day shot of my three brothers in 1994. As always, Butch is cutting up for the camera.

We all made it home for Nancy's wedding in 1994 and what a fine-looking group we were!

Photos of the eight of us with Mom and Dad are even more rare than photos of all eight of us kids. This one was taken at a very happy gathering for Dad's 80th birthday and Mom's 79th birthday. What a blessing that we were all able to be there!

One of many family gatherings at my brother Pat's house. 

One of my favorite pictures of me with my sister, Kathy, who spent a lot of time during recent years caring for our parents as they aged. 

One of my favorite pictures of me with my sister, Debbie, who also helped care for Mom and Dad through the years. Debbie's also one of the siblings who remained close to home. Debbie's kids spent a lot of time at Mom and Dad's when they were growing up.

Maybe the only photo of me and my baby sister, Nancy as adults. She's all grown up now, but we live so far away, we don't get to see each other very often.

The five sisters all together at once. Aren't we cuties!!!

Whenever I'm in Kansas, there's always chocolate on the menu. Baking brownies with my sisters is one of my happy memories of sibling love.

We match and dressed in red, just like back in the day. Me with three of my greatest blessings: Kathy, Debbie and Pat, who are all still living in Kansas and all helped so much with Mom and Dad.

A Siblings Day celebration in 2014 at Pizza Hut. What a joy to spend the day with three of my siblings that year!

Scattered from Virginia to Hawaii and everywhere in between, we all came home for Mom and Dad's final days. I'm so glad we had this photo taken. Mom cherished it until her death and it sat on Daddy's dresser as his life ended too. God blessed Mom and Dad with the eight of us to carry on their legacy. I hope we can live up to the examples they set. Happy Siblings Day to the seven people who've known me the longest. I love you all and am so grateful that God put us all together in one big family!

Blessed with Seven Siblings

The many blessings of a large family far outweigh the difficulties. Unlike some parents who carefully plan the number of children in their family, my parents took what God gave them.

As a result, I'm blessed with seven siblings. I'm number five in the family with three older sisters, one older brother, two younger brothers and one younger sister. This family photo was taken in 2004 at a family gathering celebrating my Dad's 80th and Mom's 79th birthdays.

By the time I was born, my parents' family consisted of three daughters: Susie, Kathy and Debbie and a son, Bob, Jr. who was called Butch.

I arrived on the scene late at night on December 6, 1957 in Ft. Ord, California, where my Dad was stationed in the Army. I've been a night owl ever since.

From the start, I had lots of Mother's helpers. My sister Kathy is holding me in this photo while my brother Butch looks on. Butch's cute curls were cut off not long after this photo was taken, but reappeared when he was in high school.

Posing for Christmas card photos was among our family's traditions. My Dad always took a lot of pictures. At some of the places where we lived, Dad had a darkroom where he developed and printed his photos. In this photo, I'm holding my favorite stuffed animal, Black Nose Doggy.

My little brother Mike was born on January 22, 1960, about six weeks after my third birthday. Mike was a happy baby and we were very close as kids.

Mike was still pretty young when our family moved to France. This was Dad's second time being stationed in France. Butch was born in France when Dad was stationed there in 1955. I guess I was a rebel way back then since I was smiling for the passport photo while everyone else was wearing their serious faces.

Black Nose Doggy was in this sisters photo taken in 1961, but my brothers Butch and Mike weren't, although Butch was peeking out from around the corner in another version of the photo. Apparently my Mom liked all girl photos because there were quite a few of them taken through the years.

Baby Pat joined the growing family on August 12, 1962. Pat was my parents' seventh child, the second child born in France and is the youngest boy in our family. My sister Susie is missing from this photo. 

We're looking pretty cute on Easter morning 1963. Lyrics from the song "Easter Parade" include, "In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it, You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade." We all look ready to march in the Easter Parade.

I don't have any group photos in my collection of all seven of us kids between when Pat was a baby and when Nancy was a preschooler, but I love this photo of me with my three brothers taken on a summer day. I'd guess we were up to no good, but who knows.

Nancy, the baby of the family, was born on March 23, 1968. My sister Debbie is holding Nancy in this picture. As in many large families, Nancy's older siblings served as surrogate parents from time to time.

It's not the best picture of any of us, but this is one of the few pictures I have with all eight of us together. When this photo was taken, my sister Kathy had already chosen her life's vocation as a Sister of Charity of Leavenworth. Within a year or so of this photo, the oldest five of us kids were no longer living at home.

This sibling photo was taken by a professional photographer in 1984. We refer to this as the "birth order" photo. From the left, you see Sue, Kathy, Debbie, Bob, Sandy, Mike, Pat and Nancy.

The next time we were all together for a family photo was at my sister Nancy's wedding in 1994. We're all scattered from Virginia to Hawaii and it's hard to coordinate schedules to get home at the same time.

In the summer of 1997, we all came home to celebrate our parents' 50th wedding anniversary and Kathy's 25th anniversary as a Sister of Charity. This sibling photo included the eight of us and all of our children except Daphney, Bob's oldest daughter. 

All of us except Sue came home for Christmas in 2007. My brother Pat's house was filled to capacity at the family gatherings which included 16 of my parents' grandchildren and their two great-grandchildren.

As my parents have aged, many of our homecomings have been prompted by a parental emergency. My brother Mike, sister Sue and I all came home when Dad was in the hospital after an injury sustained at scout camp in 2009. While recovering in a nursing home, Dad's heart stopped beating, but thankfully he was resuscitated by the physical therapist.

When Debbie's husband Jim passed away on May 28, 2011, all five sisters were together for the first time in several years. My brother Bob had returned home shortly before my sister Sue arrived.

My sister Sue carries me in an undated photo, taken while our family was stationed in France. Sue went off to college when I was pretty young and moved to Hawaii after college. We don't see each other very often since we live so far away.

My sister Kathy poses with me on the day of my First Communion in May 1965. Kathy has been like a second mother to the younger kids in our family. She's been there for me and my kids a lot over the years, provides a lot of support for our parents and is a real blessing to our family.

My sister Debbie poses with me on the day of my First Communion in May 1965. Debbie and I roomed together for most of our lives and raised our kids at the same time. When the kids were younger, we always stayed with Debbie and her family when we visited Kansas. Debbie and I are the only grandparents among our parents' children.

My brother Butch poses with me on the day of my First Communion in May 1965. Butch, known as Bob in adulthood, has spent most of his adult years living in the western states. Although we spent a lot of time together as kids, we don't see each very often as adults.

My brother Mike and I posed with my dolls and his bear in this photo, one of my favorites. Mike and I were together constantly as kids. Mike and his family live in Colorado so we don't see each other often as adults.

My brother Pat and I pose with our sunflowers in this undated photo taken in my parents' back yard. As kids, we spent a lot of time playing outdoors. When I visit Kansas now, I always stay with Pat and his family so we get to see each other a lot. Pat helps with many of the physical tasks at our parents' house. As the only son living nearby, he's also taken on the role of family patriarch.

My sister Nancy laughs as I pose like a monkey on the clothesline pole in my parents' back yard. Nancy was raised by all of us. I married and moved to Virginia when Nancy was only 7 years old. Nancy has spent much of her adult life living in the western states so we don't get to see each other often.

On all of my trips home, we gather for a photo of "the primes." Kathy is child number 2, Debbie is child number 3, I am child number 5 and Pat is child number 7. Kathy, Debbie and Pat all live near my parents so it's easy to get the primes together when I'm in town. This photo was taken at our Siblings Day celebration on April 10, 2014. I'm so blessed to have seven wonderful siblings!