The Wedding...Chicago Part 3

My Beautiful Bride Ashley...

A night of memories with my Best friend in the whole wide world!

Me & My Cousin as little girls..we looked like Twins...

Hello Loves...here it is as promised Part 3 of Chicago...The Wedding. I had went to Chicago all for the purpose of being in my cousin Ash's wedding & it was truly a highlight in my life I'll always remember. Even though I titled this post "The Wedding" I will say it was a beautiful day & there is no doubt a true genuine love between the couple..but what really amazed me was the feelings I had over my cousin's happiness as if it was my own. I know I have spoken so much about my cousin & the depth of our relationship but this week really became even more clear to me how strong our love was...just me & her. You see I don't have a sister, just a brother, & I've seen the closeness between some of my girlfriends & their sisters & always wondered what it would be like, even though in my heart Ashley to me was my sister. A few nights before her wedding I had mentioned to her my speech I had been working on, & she looked at me surprised saying only her sister had planned on speaking, who was also her maid of honor. My heart sank as I tried to cover my disappointment, but just like a true sister she could see it in my face. Well that & I don't have the best poker face either...LOL. But I got quite then said to her, "But I am your sister." I think at that moment it truly became clear to her that she was not just my cousin & best friend but she was my sister & she was the only one I really knew since I was a baby. She'd seen all my ups & downs, experienced growing pains with me, saw me at my worst & yet also celebrated me at my best. In my week of my relapse on this trip & though all my joint pain, she was still able to pull herself out of all her whirlwind wedding stuff & comfort me. This is just a tip of the iceberg in showing how selfless she is. She knows me so well, sometimes even better than myself I feel like. We fight just like sisters too, where we'll argue & literally within five minutes were laughing hysterically together. We borrow each other's clothes, finish one another's sentences, & have too many inside jokes to count. She will never judge me yet will never agree with me to please me. She is the mirror to my beauty, my strengths, my mistakes, my heartaches...& by that I mean when I make a mistake she's there to help me see it, move on, & better myself. And when I say heartaches by that I mean she feels my heartaches too. It was Ashley who convinced me to tell my Mom how sick I really was at 20 after coughing up blood the day they admitted me to ICU & eventually diagnosed me with my autoimmune disease. My lungs were filling with blood after many months of trips to the ER every other week. She literally saved my life. She rarely left my side at that hospital, & even was my strength during my depression after. She was truly my medicine, my healer, & my nurse. There has never been a moment she has ever made me feel she'd give up on me or our relationship. After giving my speech I think it became clear to her why it meant so much to me to speak how grateful I was to her after all these years & that her happiness & excitement over this wedding was just as much as hers as it was mine. Seeing her walk down that aisle was so overwhelming for me, & seeing my baby cousin giggle with her husband as they repeated their vows was such a indescribable moment for me because I was truly just as elated as she was. But that's the cool thing about sisters...they share everything, whether it be a dress, a bedroom, a doll, yet today we shared a glow...the same glow for the same reason; The Wedding.