Maid of Honour

Hello all! It has been far too long! I cannot believe I haven't thoroughly blogged since November of 2012! I should definitely make it my New Years Resolution to be an avid blogger.

The other day I was organizing my room/closet/life, and I came across my Maid of Honour speech for my sister Kristina's wedding. As I typically do, I wrote it the night before her wedding. Even worse, for my other sister Elena's wedding, I wrote my speech on the drive in the car between the ceremony and the reception. Ridiculous, yet nothing outta the ordinary for me!

Anyway, after I found this speech--written messily on five double-sided sheets of graph paper, mind you--I reread it and found so much joy in it! I realized that a) I would hate to lose this precious speech in a house fire so I'll save it on my blog, and b) I want my sissy to be able to read it whenever she wants to!

"Good evening beloved friends and family of the bride and groom. I want to personally thank all of you for being here to celebrate the beautiful marriage of Cody and Kristina--I know that quite a few of you traveled long distances, so your presence here today is very much appreciated.

My name is Jenny and I am, always have been, and always will be known as 'Kristina's little sister'. In all honesty, within our childhood years Kristina and I were never quite too fond of one another. And our mere 5-year age difference always felt more like an entire 2 decades of age difference. And with my intolerance to Pepsi, Kristina and I couldn't have been more different. So what happened between then and now you ask? If we were such polar opposites growing up, then how did I manage to land the Maid of Honour seat at her wedding?

Well, the beginning of our beautiful friendship all happened some ten years ago when our parents took the two of us to Germany (and apparently pretty good things happen in German, hey Cody??) Anyway, on this family vacation, it was just the two of us girls and no other siblings. Kristina was the only person I could hang out with, and I was the only person she could hang out with, 'cause let's be real here...at that age the last thing you wanna do is chill with your parents! (No offence mom and dad, you know I love you both!)

Anyway, the close quarters in the land of lederhosen and schnitzel forced Krissy and I to finally see eye-to-eye. Her dark skin always made it harder for us to bond since my pasty-white siblings and I were positive that she was adopted! But that's besides the point. After that trip, Krissy was no longer my big, mean, evil sister and--hopefully--I was no longer her awkward and overwhelmingly annoying little sister. Rather, we were two sisters on the road to a some-what civilized friendship.

The following years were spent with me looking up at Kristina with big dreamy eyes, bursting with admiration. I had a head filled with thoughts like 'I wish I had been blessed with big, luscious curls like hers!', 'ohhh to think I could get anything in the world if I had Kristina's long-shaving-cream-commercial-legs!', 'why can't I work night shift at Loewen Windows too?', 'I wish I knew how to drop a hot pan of freshly baked apple crisp all over the kitchen floor like Kristina does!', or...'if only I had Kristina's talent of downing a 12 pack of Pepsi everyday of the week, then my life would be complete!'

Kristina has a big heart and with the eyes of an observant and watchful little sister, I always noticed it most whenever she would have Andrea and Val over to watch movies, because she would always make room on the ugly-floral couch for little ole me to sit beside her and her treasured box of empty Pepsi cans. And whenever she wasn't too busy helping Dad with chores in the chicken barn, or nursing sick kittens back to life with a bottle of eye-drops, or mowing the lawn with a bag of Spitz in her hand, she was always there to offer me much-need life advice and fine words of wisdom like, 'don't stress about high school because it's such a tiny part of your life' or 'work hard and spend your money wisely' or 'Pepsi is better than coke'. Kristina's honesty and strong-will have always been admirable to me and have made her nothing short of a role model in my eyes.

So when Kristina took off on a plane to Germany to attend Bodenseehof Bible School in 2005, the thought of our young and frivolous days coming to an end brought me great sadness. In fact, as soon as we returned home from the airport after sending her away, I cried all over her old pillow. With all of my siblings also gone off to college, who was gonna take me for four-wheeler rides in the bush and gravel pits? Who was gonna sit outside and watch thunderstorms with me? Who was gonna play XBOX with me through all hours of the night? But most importantly, who was gonna finish off all the Pepsi in the house? My life without Kristina's big, brown, blinky eyes felt incomplete and empty, and at such a young age I never could understand why my big sister wanted to run off all by herself to live in a foreign country! But looking back now, I cannot help but see that she was letting God use her adventurous and free-spirited personality to fulfill his plan of bringing something or someone incredibly GREAT into her life! And it is mind-blowing to think that if she had not had the strength to step onto the big, scary airplane six years ago, then she and her wonderful man would not be sitting happily before us today! God is SO good!!

Kristina, even though I can't stand your habit of leaving a trail of Pepsi cans behind you everywhere you go, I still think that you are the best big sister anyone could have asked for...other than Elena of course. ;) From seeing you graduate from high school going to Bible college in Germany, falling in love with a big red and hairy Scottish man, moving to Calgary, and now finally getting married, you are truly an inspiration to me! You have always had God as the centre and leader of your life and you don't even know how much joy it brings me to see you married to Cody!

Krissy, thank you so much for asking me to be your Maid of Honour. It has been wonderful being able to be a part of this experience with you. I want you to know that I love you, and I love the man God picked out for you, and I also hope that he will be almost as much fun to cuddle with as I am. :) God bless!"

❤ ❤ ❤