My Brother

This morning, I thought about my brother.

Let me paint a picture.

I am eldest of 3 siblings. My brother was born when I was 2 1/2 years old. Our neighbors, who were close to our age, were mostly girls. Growing up, the boys in our neighborhood were either too young (as in babies!) or too old to play with my brother. And the weather could get hot in Manila. It might not have been like Dallas but it was certainly a lot more humid. So we had to stay indoors in the middle of the day. This worked for me because the girls would often come to my house to play.

Well, when I was growing up, I did not know I was supposed to be made of sugar and spice and everything nice. And my poor little brother, who was stuck with all these girls, had a choice between being bored to insanity and being the "family pet" of our playhouse. And because he had big dreams of "growing up", he chose life (even if it had to be as a pet).

I remember one time he was a pig who donated his blood for a pretend emergency transfusion for one of the girls (surgery?!!! geeezzzz where did we get ideas for our pretend house?!!!!). Another time, he was a monkey. We would never let him be the little brother.

Then my mind ran fast forward to the time when I talked (forced) him into eating a hot pepper. It was not as funny as I thought it would be because the pepper made him really cry. Another time, when we were arguing, I remember kicking him in the *ouch!*. Ooooh I got it bad from my mom!!!!

Today he is a dad to my favorite little girl in the world - Camille (7 years old); he a successful IT professional; and he is my friend. I was racking my brains trying to figure out how this man could even think about loving me like he does today. History certainly had no hand on this. All I know is this - I have never met a kinder man. I would not want to know life without his friendship. His humility, his integrity, his strength and his vulnerability inspires me.

Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for loving me. I aspire to be like you, Randy - a follower of God.

I love you a lot!