Our Josh

My nephew Josh was born 19 years ago on Monday. He was born in what we thought was not the best of circumstances – his parents divorced in October before he was born in March. He has never lived with his mom and dad together in a household. He is going to Polk State College and wants to be (at last check) an architect or civil engineer. The name "Joshua" means "Jehovah is salvation" or "God rescues" depending on which source one reads. Our Josh is the greatest 19 year old I know. He is caring, sweet and just makes me smile. He doesn't talk much, but when he does, it's good to listen to him. I wanted him to be a girl desperately, and actually cried when Robyn found out he was a boy, but now, I can't imagine our life without him.

When he was little, he didn't speak very clearly, and mixed words up, which was funny, because his brother NEVER did. Ken spoke in complete sentences as soon as he started talking and there was NO baby talk. Josh had all funny things he said – like he always called his pocket his "pock" and everything was "inside" not in. His money was inside his pock. . . It was adorable. One of my most favorite stories is about him saying the word "girl" he said "grrr." One day our conversation went like this:

I said, "What are you" he'd answer "I a boy." I said, "What am I?" He said "You a grrrr." I kept asking him over and over and over again so finally I guess he got tired of me asking so he sighed and said "I a he and you a she." I love that story.

One of our favorite things to do right now is try and figure out what we'd do if we won the lottery. We have all sorts of plans, which is funny, because we don't buy lottery tickets very often. Occasionally I do, but not very often. We like to think about what we'd do. It's fun and it doesn't really hurt anything. We also have long, involved conversations about topics that should NOT be long and involved. The other day we discussed superheroes and which one has the best super powers. We disagreed, but that's OK. He tried to teach me how to play chess the other day, but that didn't go so well and I'm such a bad loser, it's not always fun for other people to play games with me. He is the greatest. I was so upset when my sister told me she was pregnant, but I know now that God knew EXACTLY what He was doing. So, Josh-U-A, happy birthday! I love you!