Siblings

I have two brothers. One is my twin and the other is five and a half years older than me. Being that I have an older brother, I've never known a day of my life without having a sibling. Until becoming the mother of two, I didn't realize how much I took for granted by having siblings in my life.

When we adopted Gus, it was the happiest day of our lives. He was the answer to so many prayers and was loved and adored before he even arrived on this Earth. He made my life change the minute I held him, and at that moment, I knew I'd never be the same again.

Fast-forward to July of 2012. When the opportunity to possibly adopt again came our way, I was excited. I had been looking at agencies and had had a few phone calls getting information from some. We weren't financially ready to start the process yet, as we still had our house in NC on the market. However, I definitely wanted a sibling for Gus and wanted them to be close enough in age that they could play and enjoy each other, but not too close or far to be a problem.

As fate would have it, we received an offer on our house in NC just before finding out that we had a match with Hugh's birth mom. Our family of three was soon to become a family of four.

We didn't tell Gus about a baby coming. We didn't know it was 100% going to happen, and until there was a baby to introduce to him, we didn't think it was appropriate to even bring it up. We knew he would be excited for a baby, and we were eager to see how he'd interact with a sibling.

 

The last picture of our family of three

As soon as Hugh arrived, our family dynamic changed again. We had a beautiful baby boy and a 2 year, 7 month and eight day old toddler. :-) 

Gus has loved having a baby brother. For the first two weeks we were in NC waiting on ICPC clearance, and we were in tight quarters. Gus liked to see what Hugh was doing, only to be disappointed that he was sleeping (AGAIN).

Once we got home, Gus had other toys to play with and things to keep him busy, he hasn't been on top of Hugh like he was when Hugh was first born. That's not to say that he doesn't like him though... he loves "chew" as he calls him. LOL

What's even cuter for me is to watch Hugh react to Gus. He absolutely LOVES his big brother. He watches Gus all the time and loves it when Gus talks to him and interacts with him. It's really sweet.

 

I'm really looking forward to watching them grow as siblings and hope that they become good friends. I don't have any sisters, so I don't know what it's like to have a sibling of the same gender, but I'm certain it's different from having one of the opposite gender. I hope they always remember that their relationship matters. I know while they're little, they won't always be friends, but I hope that as they grow up they learn how to relate to each other and they develop a deep love for one another that lasts them well into their adulthood.