No longer did I have a room to myself; no more of being the youngest in the family. The day my life changed; my whole world turned upside down because I had an adopted brother. I couldn’t be the least responsible child anymore. When I had a younger brother. Honestly, I remember being confused. I was wondering why they would want another son. Was I not enough? I did have two older sisters, but I was the youngest and the only son. If another son came into the picture, I would lose all of the attention the spot light would be on him and I would be forgotten. These were the kinds of thoughts I was feeling and thinking. Most kids, who have a younger sibling, slowly have to go through the changes. But when my parents adopted him it was literally like a hammer was taken to my world. I could no longer goof off or be the least immature child. I had to set a good example. My parents suddenly expected me to do everything right the first time. I couldn’t be funny anymore; no more jokes.

Before we got Brayden, my family was living in Vietnam. I was born in America. When I was about 8 months old my parents decided to go back overseas. We moved to Vietnam where we stayed for about 3 years then we moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand when I was about 3. I remember the swing/slide set that was painted fire truck red. My dad had bought it for us my sisters and I. We used to put the garden hose on the top of the slide making our own miniature water park. I can still remember getting a superman action figure. Personally this is the first memory I have. Times were good back then, but things were going to change. When I was 5 we moved back to Vietnam which has a similar culture to Thailand. But the layout was completely different. In Thailand we had a yard that we could play in while in Vietnam we lived in the city all I remember was concrete buildings, concrete sidewalks, and concrete roads.

After living in Vietnam for 2 years my family decided to go adopt a new brother. It was one of the biggest changes in my life. In order to do this my family had to go back the states for 6 months. I wasn’t ready for these new steps of moving to America and getting a new brother that I had never even meet.

Brayden Sage came to us on July 9th. At the time I really didn’t understand what was happening. I had been staying at my grandparents house for about 4 weeks. I knew that my parents had gone to Ukraine. They said that they were going to adopt a child. I really didn’t understand what that meant until the car ride when they got home from the airport. We had two cars, so I (the lucky one) got to sit in the back alone with my new brother. Our first encounter was kind of like this. I look over at him and he looks back at me. We just stared at each other. I know that he will be my closest friends when we get older. But how were we supposed to start? I can’t speak to him. He doesn’t speak any English. We just stare until finally I look away. I then wait and look to see if he is still staring at me. He is. He won’t look away. He looks like a young kid fascinated by a new toy.

Things thankfully got better as the years drone on. I am getting used to having a younger brother. Sometimes I will come home and help him with his home work or I will have to make sure that he is eating every day before we go to school. We have both come a long way since that awkward car ride. Brayden has become fluent in English and he is being less of a pain in the butt. But even when he annoys me, I know that it is so much better to have a brother who annoys you, than for you to not have a brother at all. Adoption has forced my life to change in a drastic way. But I am glad that my family adopted Brayden. I can’t imagine my life without him.