Irmãozinho

~Memories~

Apparently I wasn't afraid anymore

~ I can't say I remember this personally, because I don't know if I actually remember it or if I just saw it in a home video, but when I first met my little brother I'm pretty sure I was afraid of him. I just have this memory of being really curious about this new little person, but as soon as daddy would bring him over so I could see better I would run and hide in the curtain. Don't worry I wasn't scared of him for too long.

~ It took Josh forever to learn how so say my name - can't blame him though, most adults have a hard time with it. He always called me shawla, it was adorable!

Fall down! Again!

~ Josh and I loved Winnie the Pooh when we were little! He had a Tigger stuffed animal, and I had Pooh. When my little sister was born we took them to the hospital with us, and he loved to make them stand up and fall down - over and over he would say "aw fa down! a'gin!"...I'm telling ya the kid was stinkin cute!

~ He used to be so shy! he hardly ever talked to anyone - but he looooooved the tractor man, Sr. Antonio. When ever he heard that thing coming down the road he would run outside and climb up onto his lap and ride around with him all day as he worked. He still likes tractors now I think, or rather outdoors work in general, but he's been driving that thing on his own since he was around 10. 

~ Ever since he was really little he always like to figure out how things worked. I remember when he was probably about 7 we got to ride on paddle boats, and when we got home he drew this insane diagram of how they worked with the little propellers and pedals and everything. The kid's a genius I tell you!

~My brother is always extremely thoughtful with his gifts, the year I remember the best was in Jr. High. Every Christmas for as long as long as I can remember I would always write 'snow' down on the list of things I wanted. It was just silly, because, well lets face it,  we lived in the tropics. Nevertheless, one year on Christmas Eve he came up with a plot, and in the middle of the night he coated the blades of my ceiling fan with Styrofoam. The next morning (Christmas day) I woke and flipped on my lights, which made the fan start spinning and the Styrofoam went everywhere - it looked almost just like snow. It took my mom forever to convince me to get rid of it.

...Apparenly he didn't think I was so funny. =P

~ My brother is a accident prone as they come. One time he was fishing and he caught something, but when he pulled back on the line the weight came flying up and hit him in the head, he didn't realize anything was wrong till he looked down and realized his whole t-shirt was drenched in blood. I think my mother almost had a heart attack. On his 10th birthday he was swinging into an igarape (creek) and let go of the rope just a little bit too late. He fell in the shallow water and broke his foot in three places. Another time on our high school retreat he and some of his buddies were out trying to find some cool snakes, and he found one - right after it bit him in the foot. By the way, that snake was one of the top 10 most venomous snakes in the world. Wanna hear a story about God's protection? Just ask me!

He was definitely jumping over me here.

~ Josh loves bikes. Especially in Jr. High. He was always learning new tricks on my old bike that he somehow managed to convert into a BMX type thing. I have a very vivid memory of him asking me to take pictures of him taking jumps of the ramp he built. To do so I would lie on the ground and he would jump over me so I could get a cool angle. Everyone that ran by kept freaking out because they thought I was suicidal or something, it was quite humorous. 

~Since the bike phase, he has graduated to the go-cart phase. (which truth be told is my personal favorite because he used to give me rides all the time - usually through really big mud puddles) By the way - he also built this go-cart and it always adding new features and adjustments to improve it. 

The result of a late night go cart run =)

~ And as if that isn't enough, he's also an awesome musician. He plays the guitar so well, I must say I'm a little jealous of how fast he learned. Since I've been away at college it seems he's picked up a knack for the piano too. In high school we were both of our school's praise band together. It was always so much fun to make music with my lil' bro =)

rockin' the electric guitar!

Joshua is the real deal guys. A couple days ago he got baptized, I'm so proud of him! He loves the Lord, though he may not be the kind to preach it from the roof tops, he lives it. That boy, is a servant if I ever saw one. He is most definitely not afraid of hard work. Most of his afternoons were spent in the shop learning about mechanics, and helping to fix cars, or over at the latest construction site on the property tiling the roof, or mixing the cement. 

My brother is also one of the most loving and thoughtful people I know. He's not really much of a talker, but that's okay because my sister and I more than make up for his lack of conversation! But on the occasions that we would venture into each others rooms and actually talk, what he said was always worth listening to. Someone once said of my Great-Grandpa Parker, - "He never really said much, but when he did say something, you made sure you listened." I have a feeling Josh might just turn out to be one of those kinda guys. 

Josh is funny! I don't remember exactly when he decided to come out of his shell, because as a little boy he never talked to anyone. Maybe it was in elementary school, when a Japanese boy, Yugo, came and couldn't speak any English or Portuguese. My brother made a point of befriending him, and they got along great! They seriously invented their own language made up of hand gestures and these weird duck-like noises noises that kinda sounded like quacking. He could always have all of us rolling on the floor laughing with his antics at a moments notice, imitating all kinds of different sounds.

Seriously these family posts could go on for an eternity. Josh in my Buddy, and sure, like all of us, he's still got a long way to go. But I count myself so very privileged to have a brother like him. He's so thoughtful, and smart, and funny, and has a passion for ministry - and I get to have him as my lil' bro. Seriously, God has blessed our family so much with him. I'm pretty sure he was the peacemaker between my sister and I on more than one occasion. Thank the Lord for putting a brother into our family mix! We'd be lost with out him!

~ Shaela