sisters

i don't know if you know this, but i come from a colorful family. well, that hasn't always been the case because when i was born, i was the second child in a pure white family that was as white bread as they come.

1976

when i was almost 11, my parents adopted my sister sarah. she was only 3 days old when we got her, so right from the beginning, she's been just as much my real sister as my blood sibling. because i was old enough to appreciate her, but young enough to still be home most of the time, sarah was like my little living doll. i got to name her because we first got her as a foster child & weren't expecting to be able to keep her. my parents figured she'd be going to her permanent home before long, where she'd get her permanent name, so what harm was there in letting the 10 year old name the baby. by the time we found out we could keep her when she was a few weeks old, we were all used to calling her sarah, so we left her name as it was. sorry, sar that i wasn't more creative in naming you.

my second sister, erica, came along 3 years after sarah. she was also a brand new baby when we got her and once again, i had a new doll baby to play with. i spent hours dressing them up & fixing their hair. i learned some great braiding skills and i can put in some mean cornrows or microbraids. i've always been thrilled that my parents decided to adopt and i wasn't sad to lose my place as the baby of the family. my sisters made our family feel complete and they added more than just themselves to us, they also added some color and flavor to our otherwise average family.

sarah is bi-racial, so she's usually a lovely shade of brown and erica is black with this great, chocolately skin.

1990

they might not look like me, but they're as much a part of me as my parents and brother.

Easter 1993

since i've moved back here, i've gotten to spend a lot more time with my sisters than i have in a lot of years, and the older we get, the more i appreciate them. i love that we look nothing alike, but we all grew up in the same family. we understand and enjoy each other in a way that i can't share with anybody else. i love going places with them or meeting each other's circles of friends and having people not believe that we're sisters. i've been asked a bunch of times if i was their mom, but no one guesses that i'm the sister.

we may all be different shapes, sizes, ages and colors, but we are all the way sisters in every way that counts. sarah and erica, i love you guys.