In 2010 I met my little brother for the first time. He was beautiful, full of life and I was terrified to meet him. Would I be a good sister? Would he understand how much I loved him? Would I be able to show him who Christ was so that as he grew he would also grow in the Lord? I was terrified. What if he saw me for the first time and hated me? I traveled so far to see him for the first time and what if he just hated me for taking so long to finally get to him? The plane ride to where I was meeting my new family was the longest few hours of my life. I felt sick.
All I really remember was walking off from the plane, fear overtaking me with each step, mumbling my way through immigration and walking face to face with the most beautiful little person that I have ever met.
Him.
Seeing him for the first time, all of my fears flashed through my head in an instant. We stood there staring at each other for what felt like fifty years, when in reality it was probably about ten seconds. And then he smiled at me with a smile very much like the one in this picture.
And my heart melted.
He was so little and happy. And happy to meet me. He told me about the trip to the airport and asked tons of questions about me and what it was like to live in America. He probably asked a ton of other things as well but I couldn't understand him completely.
My little brother's native language is Spanish and though I had been working very hard to perfect my Spanish speaking skills, in preparation for this very moment, I still was probably at a baby-baby's speaking level.
Even with the language barrier we still tried to communicate and share about the last forever of our lives, mine much longer than his, all this was intermixed with the joyful voices of these beautiful little ladies. 
The giggling and games that were played on the three hour drive to their hometown was one of my favorite parts of the visit.
I think that I should clarify some things, my little brother lives in Comayagua, Honduras with his mom and three sisters.
For a time my family, my mother and father, was separated. During that separation my father was deployed for six months in Honduras. From that time, my little brother, Howard Joshua Thompson-Euceda, was born.
((Side Note: My family has since that time been restored by God (I'd be totally happy to talk with you about it later :]) and has been together now for about ten years now. Making him 10 too!))
The summer of 2010 I had worked very hard to save enough money for my mom, dad and myself to go to Honduras so that I could meet my little brother. My parents had gone down the September before after dropping me for my first semester of college. This was my first time, which is why I was so scared.
I was also scared of what it was going to be like for my mom and dad; as well as, his mother and sisters. Would there be tension? Would their be a sense of hatefulness? Of anger? What was their interaction going to be like?
Amazingly, and by God's grace alone, it was like seeing a family member that you haven't seen in a long time. There were hugs and tears. The tension that I was afraid of was absent and there was so much joy that I forgot why I was concerned in the first place.
We traveled all over Comayagua with them over the next week. We sat in the back of an old VW van playing little shooting games and asking questions that we all had been holding inside for years. What is your favorite color? Animal? Do you like to play soccer? What do you like to eat? You know, all the questions that all families ask when they are meeting for the first time.
Through that trip, and since then too, I have seen Christ more than I could have imagined. Through the actions of my mother, especially. 
My little brother, and our trips to Honduras, are a constant reminder of what happened in my family's past. The separation and the hurt that time entailed. Seeing my mother, though, holding my little brother's mother, Maria, in a warm embrace has been one of the most significant images of God's redeeming mercy and love that I have ever seen. Her love for my little brother, even more.
Whenever I share this part of my life with others there tends to be a lot of questions of, "Is he really your brother? Like by blood?" Yes, by blood. And then so are his mother and sisters, by blood. Though for them it is a different blood, the blood of Christ.
I tell people that I have family in Honduras, I am not Latin at all but I have an entire family there. The love that I have for them all surpasses any other title. Even for Maria, she is my family. God did not intend for the brokenness that tore my family apart or the situations that brought this patchwork family together but He definitely had plans for the after, the healing. As well as, for the love. I'm actually convinced that my little brother's life is what God used to reveal something that has become a passion for me and that is the Latin culture and people. It was not until I learned of this little person that looked so much like me that lived in a different country than myself that I came to realization that there really were real people living out there.
Don't get me wrong, I knew that other countries existed and that people lived in those countries. But it wasn't until I had a connection, a real life one, that I even cared. Even then, it took me a while before I really understood. I knew that I had a brother but it took me a long time to get past my grief and anger from the situation to realize that the baby pictures that we were being sent were of a real person that cried and laughed just like me.
I really am dense sometimes but thankfully God, making me and all, knows how to reach me and when the right time to strike is. He does it well.
Maybe my going on the World Race has been a lot longer coming than I originally thought for. 10 years in the making maybe? If that is the case I should probably retract my claim that the Facebook advertisement led me to WorldRace.org. It was about 10 years ago that my journey to the World Race began.
I'm hoping that after the World Race I can visit them again and, hopefully, by then my Spanish will have become much better. I cannot even imagine the conversations that we will be able to have and the stories that we will be able to share!
