All Mikey Marotta ever wanted was to be a big brother.
Videos by InspireMore
For years, the sweet little redhead from Massachusetts had asked his mother, Jessica Marotta, when they’d expand their family. Jessica had suffered from fertility troubles before, so she was reluctant to get Mikey’s hopes up too high. After suffering a miscarriage in early 2017, the family had almost decided to accept that having another child wasn’t in the cards for them.
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“We had a heart to heart one night and decided we would be perfectly content as a family of three,” Jessica explained. “When Mikey would ask when he was going to get his baby brother, we would explain he may not get one – that some families only have one child and that is OK. He would tear up and say, ‘That’s OK if I don’t get a human brother; I have Dillinger,’ our dog.”
At every holiday or special family event, Mikey would talk about how great it would be when his baby brother could join them. “He had so many plans,” Jessica said. “Whenever he had two of something or got something newer, he would say, ‘I’m going to save this other one for my baby brother.'”
When Jessica got pregnant again, the family was overjoyed. Although baby Jake was born 9 weeks early at just 1.7 pounds, he was already strong and healthy, and most importantly, he has red hair like Mikey!
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After a very long 60 days in the NICU, Jake was finally strong enough to come out of his incubator and officially meet his biggest fan. Jessica captured the moment when Mikey got to hold Jake for the first time, and it’s incredibly moving.
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“Mikey understood how important skin to skin contact was for the baby because we talked often about how it was something he and I did when he was a baby,” Jessica said. So when they opened Mikey’s shirt and placed his teeny tiny brother against his bare skin, the boy’s eyes flutter closed and he looks like he’s experiencing absolute bliss.
“He was emotional and nervous, too,” said Jessica. “He giggled the whole time – it was so sweet.”
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The skin-to-skin bonding was just the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Jessica now updates an Instagram page highlighting the boys’ “bromance,” and every picture shows just how deep this love flows between them.
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“When Jake hears Mikey’s voice, his little head twists and turns to look for him,” Jessica said. “Mikey was also the first one Jake smiled at, and for a while, he was the only one who could make Jake smile.”
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“I truly think that they will be close for the rest of their lives,”Jessica said. “I feel like Mikey knew in his heart all along this little brother of his was coming – it was just a matter of time.”
Watch the beautiful moment when Mikey’s dream of becoming a big brother comes true, and don’t forget to share.
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