little did she know...: Lianna Banana's Birthday Bananarammalammadingdong

It’s my baby seester’s 25th BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ¼ of a century down, Lili!!! 25 years, 2 dumplings, one out of the womb and one under the belt still, and a hubby later...

Growing up with someone is an incredible gift. You get to see so many little moments that look unimportant, but really, really they are shaping this person into who they will become. You get to see the way God uses things from their past for their good in the future--those things that seemed to make no sense at the time. Lianna was the first person I received this tremendous gift with--this gift of witnessing God's work over time in one immortal soul that He Loves from all eternity. I got to see her begin life. I am sure momma let me feel her belly when Lianna gave her first kicks. I gazed at her in her basinet as a precious, pink little newborn. And then, when she began to have her wits about her, I discovered the perfect playmate and friend.

We lived in such simpatico companionship, that mom couldn’t bear to send me to preschool and separate us. We shared a cotton candy hued room when we got older that was the scene of many an epic battle. There was definitely a sheet hung up from the ceiling at one point to draw lines of demarcation between sides. But through it all, she remained my Lianna. My little sister who would, after the lights went out, pop her elbow in perfect syncopation with my knee pop. We were a very talented duo, to say the least.

And oh how the years go by. Though she was a girl who had a will that she exerted with gusto, underneath it all, she was that sweet little redhead who drug a brown box full of her toys behind me and my box.

I was thrilled when she came to college at UD, and there I was witness to the most beautiful transformation of them all.

It was there that she had that transformation that we all hope for in our lives. It was her butterfly year, the year she met her husband. She began the journey to womanhood, a journey that will never be complete in this life.

But, on this journey, she has already brought such much beauty to the world and to the lives she has touched along the way.

When Lianna got married, she became more beautiful inside and out. I am guessing that this is the mark of entering your true Vocation. You glow with the beauty of it. And, after she had Sophia, it was all over but the glowing. She shone even brighter, and looked even more like she was intended to, if that makes any sense.

Motherhood was the garment that she was meant to wear, and Lianna, it fits you like a glove. Or a chiffon dress that was made just for you.

It has not been easy, the journey to this place of beauty and wife/motherhood/womanhood. It has been painful, like all transformations. But, the way she has responded to the grace the Beloved has offered her through it all, that is where the beauty has come from. She has imitated the Blessed Mother in accepting God’s Will, and taking the suffering along with the joy that He offers in our lives. She willingly embraces the beauty and gift of being a home to a new immortal soul, and right along with it, the suffering of a very difficult 9 month journey to holding that bundle of God’s beloved new creation in her arms.

All while raising a precious, vivacious bundle of energy and curiosity we call Sophia Rose.

I love watching Lianna interact with her baby girl. They have something magical, those two. They were meant for each other, in fact.

So, I say, raise your glass to Lianna Noel Dehan McCabe

Born to two of the happiest parents and the happiest sisters/brother in the world on this day a quarter of a century ago.

It may have been January in the world, but in that birthing room? I’m guessing it was a balmy June day in Kokomo to my parents, and to me, the little Elisa that had been waiting for her little Lianna to come live life with her for a while.