Adios, AMY!!

My itty-bitty little sister is somehow old enough to move to Barcelona on Monday. She's hauling what I'm sure is WAY too much luggage overseas to go live with strangers for a semester, explore Europe all by her teeny lonesome, fit in a few classes here and there, and I'm so super excited for her. It redefines the word "surreal" when I think about Amy being old enough to take this adventure without our parents or another "adult". But I guess that's what I get for being 10 years older than her? It certainly has made for an interesting perspective; part sister, part friend, part parent. Watching her grow up, make decisions, achieve so much...she's grown to become this astonishingly smart and pretty and outgoing and fun individual. With an incredible taste in fashion, by the way (note: above photo...yes, we just happened to show up to dinner wearing the same outfit).

She's come a long way from getting caught throwing spitballs in the girls' elementary school bathroom and from taking a box of crayons to the hallway walls (why I had to clean it up for her, I'll never understand). A long way from riding a tricycle up and down the driveway with the neighbor boy, repeatedly, again and again, never tiring of what seemed to be such a mundane activity. A HUGE way from being bashful in a large group of people, from becoming noticeably giddy each time I came home from college, from crying every time we had to get off the phone (i miss that), and from sending me copies of her homework so I could proofread them for her. Sheesh, now her schoolwork is completely over my head; I would be so little help and don't receive those requests anyway.

But, regardless of how old she gets and everything she accomplishes and everywhere she goes, I still think of my baby sister with this face:

i love you, amy. have SO much fun (but not too much or unsafe fun). i'll see you soon in barthelona. xo.