As a child, like the average child, I loved when my birthday came around. I've had every birthday theme one can possibly imagine. My most favorite birthday was Barney themed, that was until it was topped by 7th Birthday. I was so excited about my 7th Birthday. The morning of my birthday I woke up to my sister saying are you ready to go pick up your surprise. And I knew just what it was. My brand new baby sister was coming home on my birthday. What was I to do. I thought of rocking her, feeding her and dressing her up like all of my pretty little dolls but the only difference was unlike my dolls she was real. The first time I laid my eyes on her I was peering through a glass window on my tippy toes as my dad pointed her out from the other babies saying she ours. All I remember of mom at the hospital was how tired she looked. Happy Birthday Princess, she said, did you see her? Mama I said, she's beautiful. That she is, mama replied. 

That night, the only thing my sister & I could do was stare at the new addition of the family that slept so peacefully in her basinet. As a result my older sister took a picture of us next to the basinet so that I could never forget that birthday. But the picture that will forever be engraved in my memory will be what I saw later that night. As I walk into my parents room to tell them good night and to kiss our baby the most profound thing happened. I was frozen in time for those few minutes all I could see into my mother's heart. There was something about how she was holding my sister. She was holding her with extra tenderness and extra care. My mother was very loving over the years but this was different. It was the delicacy to the way she held my sister as if she was so fragile that she could be broken. All she did was stare at her.

At the age of 7 I could tell through the short moment that my mom wanted to protect her from the world. It was something about that moment that I hadn't seen in other relationships between mothers & their babies. At time people say but how did you know you were only 7. You haven't lived long enough to know how mothers and their babies engage. But my response to that is that I had an inkling from that moment on that as an older sister it was my job to protect her too. I walk in and said good night mama and I kiss our precious little angel that laid in her arms. And as I walked away I turned and said good job mama, your did a good job mama. She looked at me with such love and joy in her arms. At the age of 7, I knew that my words were timely and somehow it lifted up mama even though I did not know at the time what she was dealing with. But as I laid in bed that night with a smile across my face I knew my life had a changed for the better. I had a younger sister already but since we were a year apart we were more like twins. But this time was different. I could feel it. I knew from that day my life  had changed for the better. You're reading this and wondering what was the surprise. You knew that you were picking up your brand new sister from the hospital. SO what was my surprise you're wondering......

My surprise which became, still is and forever will be my blessing was that my amazing baby sister was born with DOWN SYNDROME which I found out about years later. I was asked before "if Down Syndrome had a cure would you want it?" I responded if you had the option to cut off your right arm would you? In other words, to cure down syndrome would mean she wouldn't be who she is. It's apart of her. It makes her who she is, like a person with freckles, that makes them a rare beauty. Down Syndrome is like freckles. It doesn't limit a person but rather adds to their uniqueness and I couldn't imagine life without this version of my sister. So as my 7 year old self laid in that bed with a smile on my face. I just knew that my life had changed for the better I just didn't know to what magnitude. But still for the better nonetheless and thank GOD it did.