Saturday, April 4, 2009

Happy Birthday LiL Brother!


Happy Birthday Joshua!

Today is my little brother's 20th birthday!

To be honest that scares of me. I seriously remember the day he was born and I think just the thought of him turning 20 makes me feel old.

Due to our age difference and some of the situations we've been through in our life, it's safe to say I've acted more as a mother to him than a sister. I'm sure most older siblings do. I've helped take care of him since he was born and I was never shy about telling him what to do. These past couple of years, I'm glad to see our relationship has turned to more a sibling relationship. Instead of telling him what to do, I rather give him advice from my own lessons learned. The other night at dinner we sat next to each other and didn't fight once (I believe that is the first time ever). We even had several adult conversations about college and tattoos.

I could go on and on about my brother. He is my only blood sibling and he literally is a walking miracle. To make a long story short, he was born three months early with Spina Bifida and we were told he would never walk. Eighteen years later, he's still walking. In twenty years, he has endured countless surgeries, countless doctors visits, and a few set backs health wise. Nevertheless, he is always positive, always recovers, and continues on. We're usually more freaked out about things than he is and he is always the one calming us before his surgeries. He has the same stubbornness of my mom and I, but the older he gets he is the picture of his father. He is my everyday reminder of Steve. But that I am grateful for.

I cannot say enough how proud of him I am. He still has a long way to go, but I'm excited to watch him grow into a man. He called me a few weeks ago to inform me he was getting a tattoo for his twentieth birthday. I was impressed with what he wanted to get and honored when he asked me to be apart of it. He may not use my handwriting because it might be too girlie, but I was still honored that he thought to include me.

I hope he has a great birthday! I wish him a long life of happiness and many more years to come and I cannot wait to see what the next twenty years brings him!




2 comments:

Melissa said...

Thanks for posting those old pictures! I had almost forgotten some of those "precious" moments with him! It's so funny to sit and think about the fun times we had with him when we were little!

Elizabeth said...

This is so sweet!!