my big brother

i have a great big brother. pretty much always have. matt has taken care of me for my entire life. of course we had our arguments and our fights. he is the reason why i can run down stairs really really fast - his room was upstairs and mine was downstairs, so anytime i did something that made him mad i had to run as fast as i could and hope i beat him to the slamming of my door. but the vast majority of the time, he looked out for me.

he set the tone for me at school. he was a great student, and all the teachers loved him, so when i came along after him they automatically liked me too. he is also the reason i initially fell in love with soccer. he played, and thus, i wanted to play too.

he was one of my biggest supporters growing up, and to this day is one of my heroes. he taught me so much about life - he got married first, and gave me a lot of good advice going into marriage. i even told peter he'd have to ask my brother's permission to marry me in addition to asking my parents.

i got to see him become a father, and learn about parenting from him. we asked my brother and sis-in-law more questions about parenting than anyone else when we were on the cusp of it. [and still do…]

he is one of my favorite people in the world, and the reason why i was so very grateful that we ended up having a boy first. i wanted our other children to be able to have a big brother like i did. one who looks after them, and takes care of them, and gives them wise advice. one who is a role model, and worthy of looking up to.

of course peter also shared my sentiments about hoping for a boy first because he had much the same experience i did growing up. by all accounts brian was also a pretty great big brother. i don't know quite as much about their experience since i wasn't part of it, but i know how important it was to peter that brian approved of me. choosing brian as his best man for our wedding wasn't even a question for him because they've been best friends for a long long time in addition to being brothers.

i've heard many stories about them growing up, some of which ended in stitches for brian. brian was the peacemaker, the arbiter, and the one who could "get mom and dad to change their mind." and according to both peter and kelly, they were glad to have him as the one who paved their way.

in a way i owe my life to brian as well. he is one of the biggest reasons why peter ended up at grove city. without brian's college decision, i probably never would have met peter.



yep, we both had pretty great older brothers. and that is one of the many reasons why we're so glad that keane is going to become a big brother at the end of august. we can't wait to see him develop into a great big brother like both of his uncles!

wishing you the happiest of mondays!

xo