My Sister the Goddess

Today I feel led to dedicate a post to my sister, Candice, who is quite possibly the most amazing and beautiful young woman I know. Yes, she's my sister. Yes, I am probably a little bit biased. But y'all, she is awesome. Just take a gander at this picture of her and her husband, Joey, at their wedding day (wedding photos courtesy of my dear friend Brennan, who, I should note, is missed most dearly and should come visit us):

Isn't she just gorgeous? Well, yes, Joey is handsome himself, I know, but this is about her. They got married last December on her birthday (which is three days before Christmas, the poor man!) at the church camp where they met, fell in love, and got engaged. Sigh.

And here we are together before the ceremony, as I focus so intently on her veil:

I hate to say that I don't have any old childhood photos scanned on the computer, or else I would share the best one ever: Candice (at maybe 4 years of age??) wearing just a big t-shirt and a huge grin, with large balloons stuck up her shirt to represent, ahem, bosoms. We call it her "Dolly Parton picture." What a goofball.

So what makes my sister so amazing? A few years ago, I might have been hard-pressed to tell you. Don't get me wrong--I have always loved her desperately and found her absolutely beautiful. But she is four years younger than me, and it took quite awhile for me to look at her as my friend as opposed to just my pesky younger sister. And believe me, she could be pesky with the best of them. The infamous She Called Me a Butthead and Got Her Mouth Washed Out with Soap Incident is family lore, and even now we can get annoyed with each other, as only sisters can. She still tends to be a little defensive and sensitive, and when you couple those tendencies with my brusque, impatient personality (I am so my mother), sometimes fireworks ensue. But she has suddenly grown to become this beautiful, poised, mature, kind, sensitive, wise, responsible, married (eeek!) woman with a fantastic sense of humor and a great intuitive sense of how to relate to people, and I just melt when I'm with her. She is just so great.

Take her recent career choices, for instance. For now college is on hold as she decides where God would direct her, so she has been working full-time for awhile to support their little family while Joey finishes college. Until this summer they were living in the Oklahoma City area where they were attending Southern Nazarene University (oh, we are Nazarenes to the core, folks) and she was working at The Children's Center, a hospital that serves children with all kinds of complex physical and medical disabilities. So many of her (very vague, to protect privacy) stories would break my heart. A lot of these children have been abused, resulting in said disabilities, or are wards of the state because their families were overwhelmed by their disabilities. My wonderful sister, who just has this gift with children, took to her job as an assistant so readily and with so much enthusiasm that the staff was broken-hearted to see her leave in July. Just think of all of the menial, sometimes gross things you have to do to care for people who are physically disabled--she did it all, and so much more, with a cheerful, Christ-centered attitude, loving those kids and seeing them not as "damaged" or "broken" but as whole, down to their very souls.

When she and Joey moved up here in July so that he could transfer to Olivet (we just draw people here with our magnetic charm... or our children, they also may have something to do with it), she found a job with a therapeutic day school in the area. Now, instead of working with kids who are physically disabled, she is working one-on-one with kids and teenagers who experience a whole range of social and emotional disorders, learning disabilities, and even autism. Wow. What a leap. I cannot imagine doing what she does, day-in and day-out, without going completely insane. Her work is draining, thankless, and sometimes depressing, and somehow she manages to do it with a fierce determination and a tough love for these kids. Some of her (again, very vague! We must protect the innocents.) stories send veritable shivers down my spine. These kids and teens must deal with disorders that affect every individual aspect of their lives, and somehow Candice and her coworkers must not only teach them academics but also prepare them to someday enter and function independently in the "real" world. So yes, my sister has chosen a career path that is very, very hard and not for the faint-hearted. She is currently pursuing a degree in social work, which would still leave her working in that "not for the faint-hearted" category.

Besides working, Candice also takes care of her little family, which consists of her, Joey, and their black cat, Aerin, experiments with fun recipes, and possesses a fierce love for her nephews and niece. (Of course she does much, much more with her time--I'm just trying to sum it up, y'all.) As far as my kids go, Candice is over the moon about them, and Joey is right beside her, making googly eyes at them all... or picking them up and throwing them around in an effort to make them laugh, however the Spirit moves him. Stephen and I know that we can leave our kids in their capable hands without a second thought, and we certainly take advantage of their love for our children as often as possible. Again, Candice has this innate gift with kids that I will never have. Oh, sure, I get along swimmingly with my own children. But Candice can relate to any and all children in a way that leaves me completely in awe and, admittedly, a little jealous. She keeps Jack and Baylor entertained for hours doing I-don't-know-what, and she could hold Charlotte until the end of time, coaxing sweet smiles and gurgles out of that little baby girl. If that doesn't make me the leader of her fan club, then I don't know what does.

Did I mention that, in addition to her mad child-relating skills, she also possesses a sharp sense of humor? She is a HOOT. When I am left stuttering or completely blank as to a humorous remark, Candice has a whole host of witty and original replies ready. And boy, does she use them. Mainly she has this sense of humor because she is so very smart. She reads small mountains of books in a single bound, er, sitting, and really, she is scarily intelligent. She picks up on things so quickly and is fantastic about reading the mood of a situation. She has an eerily accurate track record when it comes to deducing why people do things or act the way they do, a way of relating to and understanding people that often eludes me. Couple that with her exotic beauty (Oh, those curls! Oh, those lips! Oh, those curves!), and she is A Force With Which to Be Reckoned.

I hope you now understand my veritable worship of my sweet sister after reading this post, as incomplete and short an explanation as it is. I will now close with a sweet picture of her and Mr. Baylor from last fall. I think the juxtaposition of Very Hairy and Very Bald is pretty funny.

I love you, Candice. You are a winner, not a wiener.