How I Know I'm Loved

Everyone always seems to have stories about how their brothers tormented them. How their brothers stole their barbies or would sit on them and dangle spittle over their faces. (Seriously I've heard of this happening). Anyway I've always felt extremely blessed because my brother was never like that. Instead of tearing off my barbies heads he would build forts with me out of Lincoln Logs and then we would have battles with rubber bands. My brother was always there to give me a hug or anything else I needed.

As I've grown up and heard of even more horror stories (see spittle reference above) I've felt even more lucky. While my parents were gone my brother and his wife were like my second parents. They were always there to make me a meal, drive me around, or just listen to me.

My brother in particular is one of the kindest most caring people I know. I have spent many an hour venting my soul to him.

More recently there have been two things that have made me feel loved. So this Christmas I got on a major Xbox kick. More particularly the Indiana Jones Lego and Star Wars Lego Xbox games. Beating a new level of the games became my only purpose in life. And nothing was more frustrating than getting stuck on a level. Whenever I did my brother was there to beat the level for me. (He's got mad Xbox skills courtesy of the Army.)

One morning I awoke to my brother and his children playing Xbox. My brother saw me and asked, "Did you get stuck on the pod level last night?" (I stayed awake until the wee hours of the morning playing...Don't judge. Oh pod as in pod racing from Star Wars). To which I replied, "No". David said, "well I thought you did I wrote a note for you." And this is what I found on the top of the Xbox:


It says, "Melani I bet (he meant beat) this pod racing level for you. David" I don't know why but I just felt SO loved at that moment. My brother thought I was struggling so he took the time to fix it for me and leave this adorable little note. It may seem like a weird thing to blog about but it meant a lot to me. So much so that now I use that note as my scripture marker.

And the second time was the other night. I was at my parents house and fell asleep on the couch. I was half asleep when my brother leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, "I love you Melani." And then he left. It was so cute.

I'm just so glad for the kindest brother in the world.