SIBLINGS –The Oldest Brother
Ricki’s oldest brother (YA) was about 15 when she was born. I remember him coming to visit me in the hospital, entering the room with a stricken face. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but it was something along the lines of “We can handle this as a family, but if you feel angry about it at times, that’s OK.”
Not too many years later he got married, and Ricki was welcomed fully by my oldest son’s wife. A year later he had his first son, and called me up to report the news that I was a grandmother.

An hour later he phoned again.
“Mom, there’s something I have to share with you. You know I just realized that no doctor has coming hunting me down with ‘bad news’. My baby is ‘normal’. I want to whoop with joy. That’s something my classmates don’t get to share: the joy of realizing what a precious thing a ‘normal’ baby is.”

Having a sibling with special needs, I am sure, can be a real “bummer” at times. But there are a lot of positive things going on as well:
-learning that my parents can tackle adversity, faith is not just lip-talk
-learning that people are valuable for what they are, whatever they are
-learning that you don’t always get things as you expected, and being grateful when things are OK

Now I am stuck-I don’t know how to end this post. Hope you enjoyed the story.
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PS Happy Passover (Pesach!)
I can't post tonight; this post is instead of one this evening.