I've gotcha.

Wednesday was Gotcha Day.  It's been exactly nine years since we picked you up in that little orphanage, met your cribmates, and touched your soft curls.  I remember walking past your room, with all those other babies, on the way to sign papers.  I didn't want to ruin the first moment of meeting you, so I didn't look for too long and instead hurried with mom and dad to the tiny office.  Sarah and I sat on the chairs behind the desk while official things happened.  Finally, after waiting for more than a year to know your name and your face, we walked into that room and I held you.

I'd never had a little brother before, so I'm not sure what to compare it to.  We were a quiet, introverted little family before you came along, but baby + boy adds some noise to the house.  I can't imagine it any other way.  You may possibly be the only little brother to sing (albeit grudgingly) "Do You Love Me" from the Fiddler on the Roof with me.  I don't think much about life before you.  I don't even think about what the future looks like.  Being with you is being in the present.  Tears in my eyes, I think of how you persistently ask, in your own way, for us to do things with you.  Your persistence in asking me to read to you, even when I'm doing my own work.  I think of you asking for your favorite movie, over and over and over.  You don't think about the future - whether you'll be able to live independently and take care of yourself and learn to read and have full conversations.  You trust us to take care of you, to take you to school and feed you and hold your hand when we cross the street.  You don't remember what happened five minutes ago, when I got upset with you, as sisters generally do with little brothers.  You're forgiving, in a trustful, childlike way.

I don't realize how much I've learned from you until I sit and remember.  Today I made you come and hug me and I held your still-little but long body, and I want to keep you that way forever.  But you are ten now, and you won't stop growing.  Grow, grow.  Fill more hearts with the joy God so graciously gave you.