This blog is dedicated to my brother Jeff. Jeff has just accomplished 120 days sober. I couldn't be more proud of him and happy for the new life that he has started for himself! It's not easy to stop an addiction "cold turkey" but he did and hasn't looked back. Our Dad was be so proud of him and how strong he has been throughout these past 4 months.
When growing up we all were pretty close. One time Jeff and I decided that we wanted to buy a tent to camp in the backyard, so we gathered up all our old toys and sold them. Jeff only seeing $$$$ signs decided that we should try and double our money by putting into a slot machine, (we were probably 8 and 10 and in Scotland they had slot machines at the Fish and Chip shops and never questioned a 10 year old putting money into it!) Well needless to say he lost every penny that we had. WE, yes Jeff and MYSELF, got punished for this, even though it was his idea! We were grounded for 2 weeks and had to wash the walls going down our stair cases, we had a 4 story. I will never let him forget that. When we moved back to the US things changed. Our parents split and we started to not get along as well as we once did. He started hanging out with the wrong crowd and we stopped being friends. It's hard now to look back and see all the wasted years that we didn't get along or really talk that much. I wanted so bad to protect him and could because he was unreachable when on drugs. Then Joseph came along.....Jeff loves kids and kids love Jeff. We are the youngest in our family and always had older cousins that spoiled us. I think these are fond memories of his and he wants to do the same for little kids in our family. He dotes over Joseph. When Joseph first learned sign language he would say "more" a lot. At one of Jeff's meeting there was a 3 year old there and he wanted something. Jeff told him he had to ask for more and should him the sign for it, his mother told Jeff that he didn't know how to sign. Jeff replies, "oh well my year old nephew does" He's so proud of Joseph and just adores him. I think he realized that I he had to change in a BIG way to be apart of my sons life. I never accepted Jeff for who he was because I knew he could and was so much more than the person that he had become. He has now turned his life around and I accept him not only into my sons life but into my life for the person that he is. When it comes down to it, we are family and in the end that's all you have. Our Dad ALWAYS expressed and stressed this to us growing up.
Keep up the good work! :) xo
