Baby Tripp was born just 7 weeks ago
The newborn, who lives with his family in Cabot, Arksansas, had a bit of a rocky start to life.
Tripp was born with Down syndrome, and spent the first weeks of his life in the NICU. Throughout that time, his family visited the hospital every single day — including his big brother, Rayce.
"From the minute [Tripp] was born, Rayce was like: 'Hand me the baby,'" Powell recently told Good Morning America. "Each day after school, he would just talk and talk to Tripp, telling the baby all about his day."
Before long, Rayce picked a song to sing to his little brother
"Every time it would come on he would just tell Tripp, 'This song's for you,'" Powell told GMA.
Eventually, she captured the heart-melting video on her phone, and decided to share it on Facebook. When she went to sleep last Monday, the video had 10 shares. By the time she woke the next morning, it was up to a staggering ONE MILLION views.
'This is how Rayce bonds with Tripp,' the mom wrote in her post
"He sings to him all the time," she continued. "He swears this song is about him and his brother."
The lyrics — in case you hadn't noticed — are pretty sweet. In the video, Rayce can be heard singing the lines: "I’d spend 10,000 hours, and 10,000 more if that’s what it takes to learn that sweet heart of yours. I might never get there but I’m going to try, if it’s 10,000 hours or the rest of my life, I’m going to love you."
The sight of any little boy sweetly singing this to his baby brother would be adorable. But there's something about this family's particular story that makes it all the more heartwarming.
"Love doesn’t count chromosomes," Powell ended her post. "Or as Rayce says, 'Aren’t we all different?'”
Right away, people were moved by the brief clip
"That is the sweetest thing I've seen in a long time," one person wrote. "What an amazing big brother."
"Oh my goodness!" added someone else. "What exquisite, pure, love! Best friends for life right there."
Powell, a mom of 5, shared more backstory on Facebook
"When we first learned about our son Tripp’s Down syndrome diagnosis while I was pregnant, we told our oldest boys Jayce and Rayce about it," she shared in another post on January 3.
She wasn't sure how her children would react, but before long, it was clear that her eldest two were ready to be responsible and loving big brothers.
"Later that night, I checked Jayce's Snapchat because I saw he uploaded a photo and I saw this. On his own he Googled 'Down syndrome' and made his own 'ribbon,'" she continued. "I was only 6 months pregnant at the time so of course the tears flew. Then we had Tripp and Jayce told us, 'I made him something during free time in class. I have it in my desk, I've been waiting until he was born to bring it to him.' Again it was the same ribbon."
The sweet video has become a message of hope and comfort
Especially for parents of children with special needs.
"At first, I had no idea why such a little video of two brothers bonding went world wide," Powell wrote yesterday, in another Facebook post. "What was the purpose for it? But the the last few days I’ve received several messages from moms. Moms who are still pregnant and received a positive diagnosis [for Down syndrome] and are scared. Moms who have their babies but haven’t told anyone yet."
Much to Powell's surprise, these women all came to her for words of encouragement, messages of hope, or anything that could put their minds at ease that their babies would be able to lead happy, "normal" lives.
"Can you believe it?" she wrote. "Me, the one who was questioning everything, terrified, scared, sick, worried, and mad the last five months of my pregnancy."
In the end, Powell doesn't deny that a diagnosis of this kind is scary for any parent — whether it's your first baby or your fifth. But the unbelievable feeling of love she (and clearly, her boys) have for their newest addition is beyond words, she now says.
"It’s scary to receive any kind of news about your child that isn’t 'perfect,” she wrote, "but I promise you it will be perfect. It might not be the world's [definition of] perfect, but it’ll be perfect to you. The second I heard Tripp cry, the months of worry were gone. I didn’t care that he had Down syndrome anymore, I just cared that he was healthy."
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