"Is solace anywhere more comforting than in the arms of a sister?"

This is my second post today, but I have been waiting to say this for some time now.

I'd like to introduce you all to my sister - Amisha. Now I know most of you know her, but I want you to see her the way we have. If you were with us this past month, you would have seen Amisha the Masi and Amisha the Sister (to both me and Ravi) and Amisha the Friend. All of these titles translate to Amisha -- the one who has helped bear the burden of our heartache like no one else.

She was basically living with us at the hospital and the first 10 days or so after we came home. Amisha is the only one besides me and Ravi that Rohan responds to all of the time. More importantly, he talks to her in a way that is unique and allows him to say things that he doesn't even say to me or Ravi. I think it's because she has let him know that she is here for him and him alone. He knows because she wakes up early to make banana pancakes with him. He knows it when she goes and buys supplies to do an art project together. Or because she simply sits and watches tv and eats ice-cream with him. Simply put, she allows him to be whoever he is in that moment. That essentially is what resonates with him.

What's amazing is that she has made me feel like she is here just for me. She's cried with me and encouraged me. Amisha has talked to people for me when I just couldn't. She has helped me clean up after the endless round of meals, fold laundry and gone shopping. It doesn't end there. Amisha has made sure I got out and relaxed a bit and kept my sanity. In short, she has been the pillar behind me ensuring that I didn't fall. Through this I have learned that there is almost no situation in which the presence of my sister does not offer some comfort to me.

She has talked to Ravi and kept him distracted with myriad topics of conversation. And she even managed to contact a friend of his to suggest she set-up a game of tennis with Ravi -trying to make sure he also got out and decompressed.

With all of that going on, she helped my parents take care of Arya. They have been watching her quite a bit lately. But she is a handful and a few hours with her can exhaust anyone. So sometimes when it was time for Rohan to take a nap, she would go over to our parents' to give them a break.

So I know many of you love her already. But now you know why for me the word seems to fall short of my meaning. We are bonded in a special way, and as odd it may sound, it makes me happy to know that Rohan is bonded to her in a special way as well. She was there in the delivery room when I was giving birth to him, and she has been there for him ever since. And for that he is lucky.