Words from my brother to me on my 26th birthday.

I wanted to share this with you, my brother wrote this to me on my 26th birthday. May 2nd 2010.

Dear Sister:

As I sometimes do on days like this, I took some time to think about you. Much to my surprise, the moments became not only a traditional remembering of your birthday, but actually an exercise in celebrating and thanking god for the blessing of YOU.
You see, the day you came to my life was like no other, a new sensation, a joy never before experienced. Your arrival endowed me with a sense of new, as if the world would never be the same again.

And it hasn’t!

Soon after your arrival, as weeks became months and months became years, the feelings of joy in seeing you grow became ones of pure amazement. I was an incredible journey to bear witness in the development of you into the most beautiful baby girl ever seen to date.

(That last statement certainly true for Manganagua, Distrito Nacional!) But then something even more sublime began to happen: “the adorable creature” began to surprisingly provide me with as much adoration as I yearned to give to her. Not too many people in the world have received the blessing of knowing the feeling of being a father long before fatherhood arrived. I have never stopped thanking god for the experience.

The memories of your first steps, the diaper changes, the pulling your thumb out of your mouth, the hearing of the still magical words “Cion Mano” are indelible in my memory. Everything from those years is as clear in my mind as if it’s happening now. All of it good, all of it special, just as if all this has been forged in my neurons in some form of tender steel.

Then came the years of separation…

When I came back to you my ongoing amazement with you continued as I found the beautiful woman you became. A woman, a beautiful young woman, A woman who struggles, but one who will break through boundaries, a woman who will continue to move forward, a woman who makes will continue to make me proud to just know her. That woman… now 26.

May the good lord bless you little sis, may your journey continue in full bloom.
And may the lord grant me many years of life to continue to enjoy His answer to a boy’s prayer; the biggest blessing he ever awarded to a 15 year old boy’s life…YOU.
Love you little sis, God Bless You and Happy birthday Your Brother,

Arismendi