"I forgive you." Those words are such a relief to an aching heart. I waited so many years to hear them from my older brother and sister and now that I have I want to sing and cry to the heavens how much I love my family and God. Thank you, Jesus, for bringing my siblings to me!
To my dear brother and sister: I forgive both of you, too. I love you too much to be angry with you. Life is precious and our time together is sacred to me. I don't want anything to sully the rest of our days. I want you both to know that from now on and forever I will always have your back. You can turn to me for anything. I will be your shoulder to cry on, an ear to rant and rave into, and support when the ground underneath you fails.
But now what? We are all healing and want to move on, but what will our future look like? I pray that each and every day will look brighter and more loving than the last. I pray to God with all my soul that we will continue healing.
I know that nothing happens overnight. There will still be bumps in the road and we still need our time and space to mend our wounds of the past. But I pray that we can grow closer rather than farther apart.
Just because we're growing closer emotionally doesn't mean we can live under the same roof again. I think we all value our independence and realize that together isn't necessarily better. Some people work better apart from each other. I think us three are like that. I think we need to be apart physically to be closer emotionally. And that's okay.
We don't have to do everything together to be close. There are many ways to show we love and support each other. Sometimes just being on the phone and just listening to each other even when we're miles apart is all we need to feel close.
And that's enough for me. I have waited years for the moment when we can finally be free from the shackles of bitterness and regret. Alec and Elizabeth, I am happy to say that we are finally FREE.
