Little Things for Christmas

Hey everyone! So, I slipped off again. It turned out I had to do most of the Christmas baking this year.

Who knew right?

But with it being Christmas Eve, and the looming possibility of my being mistaken for a scrooge, I had to get up early this morning for this moment.

I want to talk to you all about my little brother.

Now you may be thinking, “What is this? What does your brother have to do with Christmas?”

Just hear me out.

My little brother (goes to double check what I’m calling him) Spike has Down Syndrome and was diagnosed with Type One diabetes three years ago. He also has a speaking disorder that I forget the name of, which makes it difficult for him to talk. However, he does excellent sound effects.

Now, I’ve gotten A TON of questions over the years about my “weird” brother.

“Why does he look… like that?”
“Why can’t he talk?”
“What did he say?”

And of course, Spike doesn’t understand any of this. He knows he’s different, but he doesn’t see a problem with that.

Though he is a teenager, he’s as rambunctious and sweet as my five year old cousin.

When he first meets some one, he’ll run up and say Hi! with a gigantic grin on his face and shake your hand. If he’s met you a few times before, he WILL hug you. 🙂

You’re still wondering what this has to do with Christmas don’t you?

Let me tell you a story that just happened recently.

My brother LOVES action figures. He loves big ones, small ones, Marvel ones, and star wars ones.
He recently fell in love with a GIANT figure.

He had just been to the hospital for his yearly diabetes check up thingy (I mercifully have never had to go, just babysit my other siblings). It always takes both of my parents to get him there, and help keep him under control because, like any little boy, he does not like needles.

That day, things went well (I heard) and my parents decided to stop and let Spike use a gift card thingy he had received from Toy’s R Us.
They browsed through the store, trying to find something Spike wanted to get for around 5 bucks. Unfortunately, the only thing Spike could thing about was this GIANT transformer figure thingy near the front of the store, where he would drag them back to whenever they asked him what he wanted, or if he saw something cool.

Of course, the transformer thingy was outside of the price range, especially with a post-move Christmas coming up.
So my parents were walking through the store, trying to find something for my brother when one of the store employees walked up.

“Excuse me,” she said, looking extraordinarily happy, “The lady who just left asked me to tell you that she got that toy for your son, it’s paid for and everything. We’ll have it up at the service desk, so just remember to come pick it up before you leave.”

Needless to say, my Mom was crying, especially when they went up to get the toy, and they gave it to Spike and he just freaked out he was so happy.

This woman, who didn’t even know my brother or his name, she didn’t even know my parents, bought a toy for my brother because she saw how much he loved it.

I’m not going to go into a preaching lesson, or explain in detail how this is a perfect example of so and so passage from the bible, because i think the most special stories are the ones that rely on the reader to find the lesson.

All I will say is this.

My brother is hated by many people, just because he is not “truly human”. Many people decide to kill children who may be like him in the womb, rather then deal with the joy he or she could bring, even to another family.

I am so thankful for my brother. He is always happy (well, almost always), and loves life, and friends, and even strangers.
He loves star wars, and the Avengers, and Phineas and Ferb, and Frozen. He loves to sing Christmas songs, and play with his little brother and sister.
He doesn’t judge people because of how they look.
In fact, I’m not sure he judges people at all.
I’ve never seen him dislike anyone, but greet each and every person with a huge smile.

I think he’s human, and worthy to be on this earth.

And so did a random stranger.

Merry Christmas!