He was the cutest little four-year-old. I remember the day we asked him how he would feel about adopting a new baby, and how he squealed with delight and jumped up and down, "I want a boy! Let's buy a boy!" We had to tell him that "buying" children was frowned upon, but that we would be happy to adopt a brother for him.
Over the next three and a half years he waited and waited and waited for a brother. As each year passed, he would grow out of clothes and talk about how he wanted to save them for his little brother. He saved everything for his someday coming brother. Planned detailed camping trips that would be "boys only." He even saved leftover candy for him.
So last year when he lost his brother--the one he's waited on for years--he was devastated.
When we announced to the children that the Father had so graciously blessed our family with a new baby growing in my womb, Noah smiled and rolled his eyes from side to side. This is always his exact face when he's hiding something.
"Noah? What's up?" I asked.
His sweet eyes could hold it no longer and he confessed, "Every night since we've come back from Uganda I've prayed for a brother." He quickly adopted the traditional prayer stance: hands folded, head bowed, eyes closed, then sprung back to normal. "Like this."
We had to find out. For Noah's sake. At the first ultrasound, the tech announced, "It's a girl." My heart broke as Noah's shoulders sunk down and his head flopped in disappointment.
He has been through unimaginable loss and has stood strong through it all. His love for his family is beautiful, and he has really taken the role of only brother very well. Opening doors for us ladies whenever we are out, allowing his sisters to go before him, always offering me a hand. Always ready with a joke or a remark to make us laugh, using humor to make sense of this nonsensical world.
I'm so proud of the man he is becoming.
He loves his sisters so much.
And though she is not the brother he prayed for, he kisses my swollen belly (seemingly) hourly and whispers "I love you" through skin and fluid to this new darling's little ears.
He's golden. He's strong. He's the one and only.
