The Blessing of Siblings

It has been said that one's siblings are the ones who know you over your lifetime.  Your parents are likely to pre-decease you and your spouse often did not know you as a child.  One may have friends who last a lifetime and cousins that you may be lucky enough to know long term, but for sure if you have siblings, they are going to have grown up and grown old with you.
I feel quite fortunate to have married into a family when my spouse's siblings treat me like family.  I met my husband when we were quite young, so it has literally been almost 40 years, or 2/3 of my life that I have known them.  Early on we were getting through school and starting families, but as is so often said, it really does fly by.  Now we are thinking about what we want to do in our retirement and supporting each other as we struggle with the inevitable things that complicate your life after the children leave home.  Through it all, I know that sharing the burden really does make it lighter and asking for help means that you will get it.  So happy birthday to may sister-in-law, who is really one of kindest people I know.