Sisters: Yes, there are SIX of us.

There is a favorite family story about me that seems to epitomize my dad's experience raising six daughters. It's a crowd favorite; my parents even sent it in to Reader's Digest once. It goes like this. One day when I was four or five years old, I asked, "Dad, can we play ball?" My dad was pleasantly surprised. After my first day of tee-ball, he had given up hope that I would ever show interest in sports. He said something like, "Okay, what do you want to play? Basketball...baseball..." I gave him a confused look and said, "No, Dad. You stand over there and I'll stand over here, and you're the prince. You have to ask me to dance."

My parents had a boys' name picked out for every one of us. I was Ethan, Abbie was Nathan, Rachel was Sam....you get it. Actually, when I was on my way and my dad was slightly more obsessed with basketball than he is now, he was hoping for twin boys.  Benjamin and Duncan. Get it? Been jammin and Dunkin. I am fully convinced that this is why God did not allow me to be a boy.

My parents were sure that Lauren was a boy. Isaac. When they were told otherwise, we were all like, "What? What happened to our brother? Isaac?" It was like he'd changed his mind and been replaced. After that, we all kind of gave up on the idea of having a brother. If Hannah or Janie had been a boy, at that point we would've had no idea what to do with them.

My mom would never show it, but it kind of irks her and the rest of us when people tell her that our dad is a saint for putting up with six girls, implying that he must be miserable most of the time, and terribly disappointed with this unfortunate prank of genetics. When we get home after one of these conversations, our mom makes sure to tell us that our dad would not trade his life with us for anything. Apart from the "playing ball" story, I have never had a reason to doubt this. I have the letters my dad wrote me when I was born, and I'll tell you what...he really likes me.

I went through various angsty phases when I was not so pleased about being the oldest of six girls. But now, my sisters are my everything. I feel so unspeakably blessed. I often hope that someday I have daughters who remind me of my sisters. I think about the way Abbie's always singing, how she's always been the one willing to swim out into the ocean with me, and when we got in a car crash together and the first thing she said after the impact, as the car was filling with smoke, was, "Are YOU okay?!" And Rachel: the way she loves to play dress up (she and Lauren like to play hobos, pioneers, or anything that could end in a good death scence), how she has asked me every day for ten years, "Can we play a game?", and the way she makes everything into a holiday or special event. Lauren: When she wrote a letter to Jane Goodall that ended up in Time Magazine, teasing her about engineering camp and how that only made her love it more, her "special connection" to Zoe the cat, her free, careless laugh. Hannah's fiery red hair and personality, how hard she worked to learn to read, the way she follows babies and toddlers around wanting to mother them. Janie's loud confident voice in her short little body. She'll surprise you by saying things like, "Why did they have to kill Osama bin Laden? Why couldn't they just teach him how to be nice?" and "Abstract is when you know what your art means but no one else does." I love each one of them more than I could ever love anything, and I hope I can see pieces of all of them in my daughters. (I will not be having boy children.)

Some of my sisters (cough, Lauren) still like to give me grief over a home video we have of the day Janie was born, where I say that Jane looks like an alien and I'm scared to hold her. I know we laugh about it now, but Jane, I am so sorry about that. I was thirteen and hopelessly selfish. Know that now, there is no one I'd rather hold. I love it when I crack open the front door, and immediately hear you and Hannah yell, "HILARY!!" and come running to me. I love how when I pick you up, you have this funny way of holding onto my arms like a monkey. You have done that since you were a baby. When I hold you too tight, that's my way of saying, "PLEASE remember this when you're older. Please remember that we lived in the same house once."

"The best thing about having a sister was that I always had a friend." - Cali Rae Turner

My sisters are my best friends. They are always there for me, no matter who else walks in and out of my life. We have moved together, been through all the weird fads together (Backstreet Boys, Pokemon, Justin Bieber), learned to swim, play the piano, and sing together, been all over the country together, and most importantly, most of the crazy fun things I have done in my life have been done with my sisters. I would NEVER trade any of them for a brother, even for one day. Shudder.

I have been blessed in my life to have friends who feel like family. But I feel even more blessed to have sisters who feel like friends. I love you, girls. I'll always be your big sister.