outgrown.

While I was sitting at my parents house on Sunday night eating some wicked good spice cake that my mama made, my brother Matt walked out of the laundry room and over to the kitchen table with a load of his laundry. He wanted to show me how he knows how to fold his own laundry now. He carefully folded up his shirts and pants explaining which day he was going to wear each outfit. I watched him, and... thought. Hannah is learning how to fold her own clothes. She likes to help me fold the laundry. She's also four. And my brother, is twenty-eight.

When I was five years old and learning how to read, I'd come home from school and go over letters and words with my brother. He was eight, and we learned to read together. I remember the day when I understood more than my brother. It was a strange day, when I realized that Matt was going to take a lot longer than me to learn how to read, or do math, and some things he would never understand, like how to tie his shoes, or how long an hour is. And I felt sad.

I didn't want to leave him behind. I didn't want to outgrow him.

Matty has had alot of buddies. Some of them have been special like him and they never outgrow each other. Brad, and Jodi. Other's have been young children when they were friends with Matt and then left him behind as they've grown to adulthood. And then there was cousin Kurty. Who started being Matt's favorite when Matt was 12 and Kurt was 5. He would come over and play with Matt, and as he grew he began to understand more. But he kept coming. That young man (who's serving a mission in Argentina right now) kept coming over to spend the night with his Down Syndrome cousin until he was in High school and my parents moved away. But he would talk to Matt on the phone, and he writes him letters now. He is a gem. And it makes me happy.

Because there are people out there who keep caring about the special people even when they don't have to, that let themselves stay young and child-like enough to understand that you should never outgrow someone like Matt. There are things he can teach you that are much more important than tying your shoes.

And so I sat thinking about all these things, and watching my older brother interact with my three children. Holding his little namesake- Ethan Matthew, laughing at Hannah's jokes and getting upset at Carter teasing him. And I hoped that they would never outgrow their Uncle Matt.

Then I smiled, because I still talk to him every day on the phone. And he always pretends to be someone else at first. And I play along. And he laughs, and I feel happy, because deep down I will never outgrow Matt.