Happy Birthday Mikey!

Today is my second-most-babiest-brother's 23rd birthday.

This story is from the talk my dad gave when Mikey was leaving to serve a mission in Brazil:

Mikey was born with paralyzed vocal cords and couldn’t make a sound, and when he was a month old, he began choking. The doctors told us that he would need surgery and that the results of the surgery would be that he would be able to speak, but never eat solid food or he would be able to eat, but not speak. We had to make the decision. Before we left for Primary Children's hospital, my Grandpa Fisher and I gave him a blessing that promised miraculous things. Still, when they took that little month old baby from me to take him into surgery, I didn’t know what to expect. But in the operating room, just as they were about to cut his throat to perform the surgery, he cried out loud for the first time.

After that, the miracle became getting Mikey to STOP talking. My dad also likes to tell this story...

One night, we came home and found that the usually extremely talkative 3-year-old Mikey wouldn't say a word. We were pretty worried, considering his medical history. Later we found out his brothers had told him, "Your voice box only contains 10,000 words for your lifetime, and you have already used over 9,000!"

Mikey somehow managed to survive his older brothers and turned into a pretty darn good guy.

My dad's talk ended like this:

Mike might have came with defective vocal cords but there has never been anything wrong with his HEART! He has had unconditional love from the day he was born. He has loved everyone and never questioned that Heavenly Father and everyone else loved him.

I remember when he was just 3 we had some brokers from Texas stop by our house and we were talking in the front yard. I ran in the house get something, and there was Mikey looking out the front window. He asked me, “Who are those guys?” I told him they were from Texas and they worked with me. Then he said, “They love me don’t they!”

Of course I answered, “Yes they do, Mikey”.

And we like him an awful lot too. Happy Birthday, Tyrannodorkus Rex.