Siblings

When you watch Sáin and Aidan together it’s pretty obvious they love each other. Sure they fight and compete -- don’t all siblings? But there’s something special between those two. It’s been there since the beginning.

When I was on bed rest before Aidan was born, Sáin and I would watch Blue’s Clues together. She would get down near my stomach and give a play-by-play of what was happening on the show. “Aidan can’t see what’s going on yet and I don’t want him to feel left out.”

Last night I began to realize just how much Sáin loves her little brother. Sáin and I were playing a math game (part of her homework) and Aidan was playing on the computer. I must’ve looked up at Aidan with a worried look because Sáin stopped the game and said, “You’re worried about him, aren’t you?” I admitted to her that I was. Aidan’s been sick since Thanksgiving. I never told Sáin I was really worried because she got the flu the November before diagnosis and our doctors and researchers figure that is what triggered the autoimmune response that caused Sáin’s diabetes but she must’ve been thinking the same thing. She said to me, “I would give up my cure if it guaranteed Aidan would never get this disease.”

It was one of those moments where you have to choke back the tears and all you want to do is hug your kid. As a mom it made me proud; as a little sister it made me sad. My sister is hardly a sister to me anymore. I hope Sáin and Aidan have this forever.

(Aidan has been having a lot of “events” that seem to parallel the time leading up to Sáin’s diagnosis. I’m hoping I’m just being paranoid but with Aidan’s genetic predisposition to the disease I get worried about the similarities.)