The Best Inspirational Stories of My Life

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My Best Inspirational Stories Always Include My Family

One day my mom discovered she was pregnant again unexpectedly. This met with varied reactions from the family. My brother, I think, was just embarrassed at the thought that my parents were doing such things together. My sister and dad were very happy. But I was ecstatic! I had always wanted a younger sibling, boy or girl. I went around telling everyone at school the good news. Then, I had additional news to tell when my mom found out from an ultrasound that she was going to have a boy.

My Best Inspirational Stories - My mom had started with labor pains…

I remember with perfect clarity the night my baby brother was born. It was a very late Thursday night. earlier that evening. Since all of us kids were born at home naturally with the assistance of a good friend who was a trained midwife, my baby brother would have the same personal care. My aunt and uncle came over to attend to us kids while my mother gave birth in the room that I shared with my sister.

My baby brother was finally born after eleven o'clock that night. The whole family was invited in to meet him. What an adorable tiny thing he was! He weighed seven pounds and fifteen ounces. I was teeming with giddiness and pride. My parents decided to name him Matthew, but we mostly call him Matt. That night, I didn't notice it, but my father and the midwife exchanged a few worried glances over Matt. My mother was likely too exhausted to notice.

My Best Inspirational Stories - As the months passed by and my baby brother grew…

As the months passed by and my baby brother grew, his progression seemed slower than what my parents remembered when we were babies. At a doctor's visit, when my baby brother was nine months old, the doctor, also a family friend, told my parents that Matt had Down's Syndrome. According to my mom, my dad casually asked the doctor, "So you think Matthew might have Down's Syndrome?" To which, the doctor replied, "Yes, he definitely has it." My mom doesn't remember understanding anything that was said after that. The words became a jumbled mess amidst the million questions and doubts going around in her head.

She wondered, "What will we do?" "Will he be very sick?" "I've never taken care of anyone sick, I don't know what to do!" She prayed very long and hard for many nights and relates that she always felt an incredible peace come over her after her supplications. The whole family got busy looking up information about Down's Syndrome and we found out that there are varying degrees of it. These degrees can be from the debilitating to very highly functioning. Only time would tell to which degree my baby brother would be affected by his illness.

We started out teaching him all that he needed to know. Many things took extreme patience. My mom kept baby books for each of us to record milestones and stories in our lives, such as when we first spoke, crawled, and walked. These milestones were slower to come in Matt's case, but were even more celebrated when they did come. In time he learned to crawl, speak, then to walk. From a very early age, it was evident that he had a great sense of humor that always kept us laughing.

I was learning some French in school, so I would go home and teach what I learned to Matt and he was very apt for learning things like this. He learned how to identify his head, shoulders, knees, and toes in French. I think I thought of him as my little monkey and taught him all kinds of tricks. Being a very sociable tyke, he loved to show off and "perform" in front of others.

My Best Inspirational Stories - a slow-growing but lethal tumor was discovered…

My brother Matt is now twenty-two years old and has faced multiple challenges in his life. Some of these have been health related. In 2002, a slow-growing but lethal tumor was discovered behind his ear. He was operated on and had to have most of his inner ear removed, which impaired his hearing somewhat. Matt is very athletic and has more muscles than all of us put together I think. Most kids with Down's have weight problems. Not my brother; he is what you might call "ripped" or "cut".

He is always jumping around doing summersaults or pretending some imaginary villain is chasing after him. So it surprised us when one day he fell down and hurt his knee very badly. It turned out he had chipped a piece of his knee bone and had to have another operation. He has given us quite a few scares medically. Besides this, he has other challenges. He still can't read, despite many efforts to teach him. I still have hope that one day, that part of the world can be unlocked for him.

One of his greatest challenges is that he wants very badly to be married and doesn't understand why many of his friends his age are married and he is not. We just try to help him focus on the many friends he has that love him. I love my brother dearly and although this story is a simple everyday one, I think of it as one of the best inspirational stories I know because it is a continuing story of love, persistence, and joy.

Thank you and May God bless you!

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