Sibling Love

In my opinion, the best gift a parent can give their child is a sibling.

My father was married to another woman before he married my mother. He and his first wife have a daughter who grew up as an only child with her mother in France. My parents got married and had me. No siblings on the scene. My parents got divorced when I was 5 and my mom remarried when I was 11 years old. She and her husband had my younger sister when I was 12. Up until that point, I grew up alone. My older sister and I lived oceans away from one another. I went through my parents' divorce alone. Everything I did at home, I did alone. When my younger sister was born, I was on cloud nine...I felt so blessed to have this precious bundle of joy to care for right there, in my home with me...Because I was so much older, I took on a "little mommy" role, changing her diapers, bathing her, feeding her, rocking her to sleep, singing to her...I loved every minute of it. But I remember always wishing that we were closer in age...


My boy, who's 21 months old, adores his little sister, who's almost 5 months old. Every morning when he wakes up, hers is the first name that comes out of his mouth. Every night before bed, her name is the one that comes out of his mouth before he falls asleep...When he comes home from pre-school, he runs into the house calling her name, wanting to hug and kiss her. When she cries, so does he...He's so empathetic to her...


This past Shabbat, I experienced the most heartwarming moment with my kids. My little girl was in her stroller that faces me and my boy was standing on the stroller facing her. In his own little language, he was talking to her. Suddenly, huge smiles broke out on her lips and on his...It was a special moment, just between them. It was Shabbat so I couldn't capture the moment on camera or video, but the memory will remain close to my heart for a very long time.

I pray that the two of them share their own common language for many, many years to come and that they grow up to become the best of friends. I feel extremely blessed that G-d gave them to Hubby and me. But the blessing goes way beyond that. I feel tremendous joy in knowing that they have been blessed with each other.

With Love,

Cigal