My birth child had a tonsillectomy last week (on Love Thursday, ironically!). Knowing that it might be a few days before he could talk again, we called the children we are adopting to let them know about their brother’s surgery, and give them an opportunity to talk before the surgery. Before hanging up, my daughter (who is 5 going on 35), asked me to call her to let her know how the surgery went.

I thought this “sisterly concern” was adorable, especially in light of the fact that the kids aren’t even here yet. Clearly, they have bonded over these many months of phone calls, letters and our road trip last month.

And the love goes both ways! Shortly after my son got home from the surgery, he said, “I’d feel a lot better if my brother and sister were here with me!” Groggy and still in pain, his first thoughts are on how much he misses his sibs!

Currently on my reading list are newly added books, Siblings Without Rivalry and The Birth Order Book by Kevin Leman. Since I have no siblings of my own, I felt I needed to read up on what to expect with three children (two of them added overnight, fully developed and ready to go!).

I’m only partway through the Leman book, but I devoured the Sibling Rivalry book in a day! It has tons of extremely practical and easily incorporated ideas on how to handle any one of dozens of everyday occurrences. The book gives you word-for-word scripts to help any parent navigate life with sibs. A word of caution from a Christian perspective: the book does contain a few mild expletives. Most are confined to the “newly revised and expanded” supplemental information at the end of the book.

I look forward to seeing this sibling relationship unfold. I hope it will be one of those “best friends for life” scenarios I hear about, and have witnessed between my husband and his brother. Time will only tell …