He Actually Heard Me

My youngest brother is 8 years younger than me. I helped my mom raise this kid. And in the past 2 years my mom has sort of stepped away from her parenting duties, so I've taken him under my wing, as my own. My dad is still there clothing, and feeding, and sheltering him, but anytime he needs a motherly thing and mom isn't there, he turns to me.

I booked and went with him for Senior Pictures, I printed labels and helped address and mail graduation invitations, I took him to get a tux for Prom, I even followed him to pick up his date and take the traditional motherly pictures.

Then I found out he was headed to Mexico for his senior trip. About 20 students from Kam's senior class were all going together along with a few parents. To Mexico. For a week. And we all know exactly what they were gonna do down in Mexico. P-A-R-T-A-Y

The night before Kam got on the plane, I called him. And I briefly told him the Natalee Holloway story. I knew I didn't have to worry about him so much because he's a boy and he can basically handle himself. But there were girls going on this trip, too. Girls that Kam had dated, and gone to school with and become good friends with, girls that I know and love. I reminded Kam that even though none of them were his girlfriend, they were still his friends and he'd be upset if they didn't come back home. And I asked him to watch out for them. If they were really wasted and about to enter a potentially bad situation, I asked Kam to step in and protect them. To pretend to be their boyfriends, to make sure they came back home.

And he actually listened to me. He heard every word I said, he asked a few questions about certain situations, and he followed through.

I spoke to Kam this afternoon for the first time since that "motherly" call. And he told me 2 stories of how he watched out for 2 of the girls on the trip. How he stepped in and made sure they stayed out of harm's way.

I was so proud of him, and to top it all off, I even got a message from one of those girls....

"right when we got to pv kam told me that u told him to take care of me and molly and the other girls and he said and guess what..thats exactly what im going to do..and he really did. he would pretend to be my bf to get guys away from me lol.."

That made me the most proud. To hear secondhand that he really did hear me and he took me seriously, for once in his life.

I am so proud to see this kid, that I helped raise, my little brother, becoming such a great man.



Now if only he'd realize that when I asked him to bring Piglet a souvenir that she could grow with- something other than a t-shirt- a picture frame might not have been the best option!

But at least it wasn't a shot glass!

Love ya, Kam Lee!