Our Story

We are two sisters living over 3500 miles apart, sharing one pair of shoes and taking each other places in spirit when we can't be together. This is our story and journey together.

How It Began (by Rachel) ....

It was never our intention to live miles a part and see each other once every other year if we were lucky. But here we are, exchanging phone calls, e-mails, and using facebook and blogging as a tool to stay in touch with our parents, siblings, nephews and nieces. Both my sisters are military wives and they move just about every 3-4 years, and it's never a move that brings them closer to me on the east coast nor my parents and brother in northern Michigan. I miss my family, I miss my family ALOT. I've been blessed to have such an amazing, loving family. When Jaime called to share with me that her and Al were going to be stationed in Germany, I could have screamed with excitement for her.  You see, we are more alike than we are different and picturing the culture she was about to indulge in and the European travels they would be taking over the next four years,  made my heart burst as I too would love that opportunity, after all a trip to Italy was on my bucket list. I also realized that while she was only a nine hour drive from me for four years (during which we worked at Disney World together for a brief moment) we'd now be an ocean a part, something I had already experienced with my oldest sister Jessica when she and her family were stationed in Japan. Our phone calls went from once daily to a rare occasion. After returning to the states Jessica and I haven't really been able to spend much time together with the miles (and expensive airfare) between us. I couldn't stand the thought of Jaime over in Europe and not being able to experience it with her as I regret not visiting Jess in Japan. Jaime and I share much in common including similiar looks, tastes, quirky habits, off key singing and shoe size. Although it wouldn't be the same as being there with her, sharing a pair of shoes that we could use to take each other to see friends and visit places would allow us to create memories with each other, even if we were only there together in a size 5 1/2.



The Gift (by Jaime) ...

Rachel's gift arrived on New Years Eve. I opened the shipping box ... inside was a shoe box. I lifted the top of the shoe box and found a poem Rachel had written titled My Sister's Shoes.

Under the poem was a handful of snapshots of my sister wearing the shoes that were now laying carefully packed in the shoebox I just opened. Teary eyed, I shuffled through the pictures of the places she'd been in the shoes and read the captions she had handwritten on the back.

We live an ocean apart but through these shoes we can continue our walk through life together. I have visions of us, old and gray ... sitting by a fireplace ... sipping cocoa ... reminiscing about where our shoes took us on our journey through life.

About My Sister (by Rachel) ...

I stole all the attention on Jaime’s 7^th birthday, June 10, having been born just 24 hours earlier on June 9th. I believe she resented me a little bit every June 9^th after that, when she had to share her birthday cake with me a day early. Half of it was covered with an astronaut theme for her and the other half with butterflies and rainbows for me. I used to be the pesky little sister wanting to be a part of her social life when she brought friends over to the house. I’d be thrown an evil eye when she would find me peering into her bedroom window from outside on the roof; but on occasion she’d allow me to hang out as long as I stayed on top of the bunk bed (out of sight) and didn’t say anything. I looked up to her so much that I wanted to be a part of everything she was and try everything she did. I tried my hand at her violin, but my talents never seemed to match hers as the notes I played on it were so awful they broke the strings. In my eyes she had the coolest friends, the coolest clothes, and the coolest toys. I always wanted to play with her She-Ra Dolls, but she didn’t trust me not to break them like I did her violin so I would sneak into her room when she was gone and tinker with them. Even when she agreed to let me wear a sweater of hers it typically returned with a stain on it. Unfortunately my innocent idea to wash her cabbage doll’s hair, Ramen Newton, in the only bowl I could reach, the toilet, ruined it as well. It wasn’t my intention to be the pesky little sister by breaking her toys, staining her shirts, or being the buzz kill of her social life in her teen years, however even as I reflect back on those memories today it was clear I was the epitome of one. When it finally came to her graduating high school, I must confess, I felt responsible for her choice in such a great college, as far south as possible, over 1300 miles away in Florida.

In my teen years when both my sisters shared an apartment while attending college they welcomed me for visits during my spring breaks. It gave me the chance to redeem myself and to have the “pesky” removed from the “the little sister” title.

In my senior year of high school, Jaime came home for my dance recital and performed a duet with me like we had seven years earlier. This duet was much different. I was now a mature young adult not a pesky little sister, and the story we told our audience together from the Cheboygan Opera House stage was the beginning of a bond that in prior years, seemed impossible to have. For the first time in my life, I was able to share something with Jaime that I wouldn’t break or stain. As we took the stage that evening I couldn’t have been more proud to share it with her. Every step was taken together, we moved like one, not two, and although we told a story for an audience I couldn’t have been less nervous because for me, it was just my big sister and me, having a conversation, and this time I didn’t have to be on the top bunk.

Jaime might have had to reluctantly share her birthday with me every year when we were younger, but she willingly and lovingly shared the stage with me that evening.

About My Sister (by Jaime) ...

Rachel and I are almost exactly seven years apart; I was born June 10 and she was born 7 years later on June 9. As a little girl I thought if she was born on my birthday that we would be twins ... and the closer our birthdays were together the more we would look alike. Luck would have it that we actually DO look very much alike.

Being completing honest, we DID NOT get along much when were younger. She always wanted to destroy play with my treasured She-Ra dolls, she "accidentally" dropped both my NEW Cabbage dolls in the toilet and not so kindly ripped-up the "drivers license" I made for her she passed MY drivers test on the family golf cart (I'm still a little hurt over that one). We did, of course, have our good moments ... like collecting and trading stickers (which we still do) but I'm pretty certain our fighting drove my parents nuts.

Things changed dramatically when I was going on 17 and Rachel was going on 10. We always had our passion for classical ballet in common ... we literally grew up in the dance studio with my mom. We performed a sister's duet during my last dance recital and I remember opening my eyes for the first time and seeing in Rachel an amazingly gifted little dancer and remarkable little sister ... little did we know at the time, but that duet sparked the beginning of an ever-growing bond between us.

Since then, she has stood in my wedding, we've lived together in FL, auditioned together, worked together, I've stood proudly in her wedding, we've shared countless visits, countless hugs, and countless phone calls. We've laughed, we've cried, we've shared secrets, hopes, disappointments, and dreams. Somewhere along the way she lost the title "little sister" and became "sister" .... and most importantly ... "friend".


About OUR Sister

We have another beautiful sister, Jessica! Jessica is the oldest of the sisters and we share a bond equally as strong with Jess as we do each other. Jessica is the mothering, nurturing sister to Rachel (the mama bear when we'd fight) and the college BFF to Jaime and who shares motherhood with her as well. We used to tease each other growing up that she got the looks in the family! Where we have brown hair, short legs, an athletic build AND we're always having to pluck stray hairs, manage acne prone skin and we share a 5 1/2 shoe size .... Jessica was born with the beauty of blue eyes, blond hair, a taller build, skinny legs, clear skin, hasn't had to pluck a stray hair in her life and wears a size 7 1/2 shoe. You can imagine we felt pretty shortchanged as kids but now celebrate our likenesses and differences ... ok, we may feel a still feel a little heartache over the stray hairs!



Rachel, Jessica, Jaime