Christmas Snow and the start of my journey

T thinks that x-mas only comes when it snows. He says the rain just turns to snow. I have tried to explain to him how it has to be cold and then there has to be moisture, enough to actually snow for us to get snow, and then that even though it "could" snow, it likely won't or if it did, it would only fall from the sky and not accumulate. I just hope I can get across we are having x-mas, whether it snows or not.

I remember the day my sis asked if I would adopt him, it came totally out of left field for me. She was in her room, she might have been crying, if she was, she was trying to hide it. She asked if I would be interested in adopting T (she was 3 months pregnant at the time, so really early on). I told her yes I would be interested but that she needed to think about this and make the decision that was right for her. I didn't want her to give him up if she didn't want to or if it wasn't going to be the right thing for her. I realized immediately that this would be the hardest thing she would ever do, and I wasn't sure at first this was something she really wanted. She is my sister, so no matter what, I was going to be there for her. And I was going to love T no matter what, because no matter what he was going to be special. Her son, J and I have always been very close, I imagined that no matter what A decided, T and I would be close. So, I went with her to appointments and never once did she waver on her question to me, she assumed my yes was it and he was my son. When the first test they did came back and showed markers for downs syndrome, she asked me to call the doc and talk to them about it, she asked if I wanted the amnio. I did not, if she wanted me to raise T, there was nothing that would change my mind.
A's boyfriend, T's bio-dad was around some too, he was very pro me adopting T. So much so that I think maybe he told A he wouldn't help her with T, he already had 4 other bio kids that he was not supporting in anyway. He is my least favorite person on this earth, also a story for another time. A is very aware of the programs to help mom's parent their children, she helped a friend try to keep her kids when CPS was involved, she knew the ins and outs of getting assistance with daycare, WIC, food stamps. This is something she decided to do, because she felt she couldn't parent T, she wasn't really at the time parenting J, my parents were, it wasn't a matter of not knowing how to get help or that there was help out there, she just could not parent T and wanted him in our family no matter what.
My sis is a little shy and less likely to speak up for herself then she would be to tell me what is bothering her, what she needs. I did try to make sure when she needed something, someone at least listened to her, and this included a little bit of me yelling at nurse in the hospital for her but that story is for another time. There were a lot of ups and downs over the six months A was pregnant after she asked me to parent T. We were there together through all of them. Now, almost 5 years later, we are closer than we have ever been. And we both love a little boy named T and would do anything for him.