Sisters, Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters!!!

The "Sisters" song from the old movie White Christmas is one of my favorites. :)
I know I often talk about Leeza's awesome relationship with Sean, but I need to make sure I also share that Leeza is a lucky lil girl, she's got 2 much older siblings that she adores too, and they CLEARLY adore her. :)



Jillian came over mid week last week and told Leeza that she'd come back and they could go to the park and have ice cream. Everyday, Leeza asked me "Is Gigi coming today to take me to the park and for ice cream?" It was so adorable. And, on the VERY RARE moments when Leeza was being uncooperative (ha ha, rare indeed), I would say,oh, you're making me sad, I will have to go GIGI and tell her you're not being nice. She would immediately straighten right up. :) Leeza LOVES her sister.

Jillian and I have had our share of a rocky relationship past, having met her at a difficult age (12), but after almost 16 years (wow, really?) we have weathered the storm and come out on the other side. :) I was 28 when I started dating her dad. Figuring out the stepmom role is a tricky one to navigate. I made some mistakes, lots of mistakes. She is a beautiful girl, both inside and out, with an uncanny sense of humor and strong devotion to her family. She was an amazing addition to our team in Kazakhstan and it warmed my heart to watch her NOT ONLY adjust incredibly well, but fall in love with the people just like we did.

She has always had an awesome relationship with Sean, and I am so happy to see the same kind of warmth developing between her and Leeza. It's awesome as a parent to have a much older sibling to talk to when it's just not cool to talk to a parent. What's really funny is when Jillian gets on Sean for talking back, or his grades, or his messy rooom, when she was a virtual nightmare on all that stuff when I met her. Ahhh how maturity changes things, and HOW AWESOME as a parent to get to witness.