From Sister to Friend

St. Lawrence, Pray for Us.

Dear Laura,
A year seems like such a short time, yet so much has changed in this year for you. Heck, who am I kidding, the last few years have been a roller coaster of change for you. In the past few years I have seen you go from a girl who seemed to only care about her feelings and her problems to a glorious woman rooted in finding and doing God's will in her life. I have seen you turn from a girl who spent her spare time with friends doing "normal" teenage stuff, to a woman who spends every second of her free time in prayer, studying scripture or defending the unborn. What a miraculous and wonderful transformation this has been to see. You have grown so much in the last few years.

You see Laura, sometime in the last year something changed. Somewhere along the road you were no longer my baby sister, you became my friend. A friend much braver and holier than me. A friend who would spend a whole year saving money so she could go to a good Catholic University. A friend who had the courage to stand on the streets of a busy highway defending the unborn and be unjustly arrested. Oh, to have your courage! How I wish I had the courage to stand on the sidewalks of the abortion clinics and speak to the hurting women who walk through those doors, to try and talk a security guard into quitting his job. How I wish I had so much trust in the Lord as to give up everything, beg for other people's money and go work for a non profit organization in hopes that maybe just one of the innocent would be saved. Yes, my sweet sister, sometime in this short year, the tables turned. I stopped needing to teach you, to give you advice. Instead, I started looking to you as an example, an example of faith and of trust.

On this 20th celebration of the year of your birth, please know that you bring great joy to everyone you meat and everyone you know. And not just any joy, but the joy of Christ. Your timeless sense of humor and contagious laugh brighten everyone's day. The laughs we have shared and the tears we have cried are forever imprinted in my mind and I am forever grateful for them. I am eternally gratefull you.

Happy Birthday my sweet little sister. Happy Birthday my friend.

I love you,
Dre Dre