Without Hope

My sister, Hope’s name has always been one of the unique things about her. She loves the name because she can always find souvenirs with her name. Her name is also easily translated into different languages in Spanish she is known as Esperanza and Toivo in Finnish. Plus her name is really easy to put into all kind of sentences. “I ‘Hope’ it doesn’t rain today”, “’Hope’fully I get a lucky break”, and “You are our only ‘Hope’”. My sister has heard all of these puns and her reaction is to laugh politely and to then move on with her life. One of the phrases that Hope often hears comes from her husband, who often remarks, “Where would I be without ‘Hope’?” Where would the world be without my sister? I might not be able to answer what might the world be without Hope, but I can definitely think of the things that she has done to help the people around her.

To my parents Hope has always been the child that they haven't had to worry about. My parents whose first daughter had been a terror at night always worried if their second oldest, Hope, would have such trouble sleeping. Early on their fears were assuaged as they would often find that Hope would find her way to the crib and be sleeping long before my parents even thought of putting her down to sleep at night. If Hope hadn't been born then I feel like my parents would have been a little less likely to have more children. Plus my oldest sister would have missed having a younger sister that she could hangout with and treat as a friend.

Hope, my Mom, and Audrey.

When the two of my sisters were both younger the two of them hung out a lot. As the two of them got older, that wasn't always the case. But at a young age Hope and Audrey, my other sister, were always doing something with each other. The two sisters' escapades included choreographing dances together, filming skits, and making tons and tons of cookies. The two of them were inseparable and without Hope who knows what might have happened to Audrey.

Beyond the impact that Hope had on her sister there was also the impact that she had on me and my younger brother. As I stated before Hope might have softened my parents' hearts towards having more children, but beyond that there were other things that my sister did to help me and my brother. Mitchell, my brother, and I were always very close to my sister. When Hope was in high school Mitchell and I were making our way through the awkward years of middle school. During those years Hope was always a friend to the two of us helping us to not feel as weird about the future. She also acted as an inspiration by being a very good cross country and track runner and also a very talented flute player. Watching her made me and my brother want to be better at the things we were doing and gave us hope that things would get better down the road.

Me and Hope.

After Hope graduated from high school she met the most important person in her life. That person's name was Joe. Joe who was attending college ran into my sister at a party and the first thing Joe ever said to Hope was, "I heard your name was Esperanza." From what I've heard my sister wasn't too impressed to be called Esperanza by this boy she had just met. But with time Hope began to really like Joe a lot and the two of them spent tons of time together. Eventually they were married in the Salt Lake Temple.

 After a few years of marriage my sister gave birth to a baby boy. That baby boy is probably the happiest baby that I have ever seen and everybody thinks that he is absolutely adorable. Now at this point I can tell one thing for sure that wouldn't have happened if there was no Hope. That is that this baby boy wouldn't exist. Because Hope is definitely this boy's mother and no one else could be his mother no matter who they were or what skills they had. Without Hope there wouldn't be this kid and there would probably be lots of other things that wouldn't be. So what I can say is that without Hope in the world there wouldn't be as good of a world. Today I want to thank Hope for being my sister and for making the world a better place.

Hope, Joe, and their baby boy.