Jojoe.

[verita_bella]

            It's a bit scary exactly how good Jojoe is.  Not scary as in a Bad Seed-secretly-evil-child, scary as in, there is absolutely no way we deserve such a genuinely sweet kid.  Ever since he was a baby it's been like this, for a short time I thought the nightmare was going to become reality, when everyone thought he had growth problems.  It turned out that he just was small for his age as a young toddler and his pleasantly sweet and quiet nature as an infant would extend into his personality as a boy.  A lot of  times, when he's sitting there calling me 'Rosey' or running to give me a hug when I get home, I wonder how so much love can be squeezed into his little body.   Or more inconceivably, that a little boy's capacity to love would actually grow with his age instead of suddenly morphing into a smurf-style tough guy act.  Sure he gets in trouble once in a while, fights with his brothers sometimes.

 But quite often it's because he's defending another brother, or just was sick of getting picked on by another.  And through everything, there's this sparkling love that is always showing through in his sweetness.  Out of everyone in my family, parents included, he's the first one to notice when some thing is wrong.  And when he does, he doesn't start grilling me for an explanation, he simply hugs me.  No questions asked.  'You're my sister, you're sad, I love you.'  He wraps it all into one cuddly moment.  I realized today how much we're both going to cry when I leave.

<- yeah, he's an angel.  but he's also 8 years old!