Brody

About 10 minutes after we left our hotel this morning, I look back at Brody and he is in tears. I was kind of shocked and asked him why he was so upset. Thinking to myself that the reason was that he was leaving such a fun-filled couple of days. But I was wrong, he told me that he was so sad to leave all the people he had met. My heart melted.

In the short two-night stay, he had met many people and had formed some sweet relationships. 

There was the boy, his age, that he spent hours with in the pool. Then, there was a lonely, older gentleman who he spent 20 minutes in deep conversation with as we were at the pool yesterday afternoon. The man gave him a ball cap.

Last night, as we were watching the sunset, a family walked up to me. They literally sang praises of Brody for 10 solid minutes (they had left their table at the dockside restaurant a few feet away, and they talked so long to me that the restaurant manager had to come get them to tell them that their food was ready). In the end, they asked if they could get Brody a dessert at the restaurant. I watched him as he sat with the family eating his dessert, deep in conversation. 

Then, finally, as we were in the car, this morning, about to leave a sweet, precious, elderly, 88 year old woman came up to our car window. She was the cashier at the hotel gift shop. She was on the verge of tears as she told me how much she enjoyed having Brody (and sometimes Mila) come into her shop several times each day to talk to her and buy things.

I realize that there are dangers talking to strangers in this broken world, and I’ve made Brody aware of things to be careful of. However, it makes my heart so happy that Brody can, in just a couple of days, touch so many lives.

He often drives us crazy with his hyperactivity, but he truly does have such a sweet and kind spirit underneath it all.