thankful

I want to do "Things I Love Thursday" at least a couple of times a month, but January has flown by so quickly and here I am, on the last Monday of the month, listing the things I'm thankful for. Bear with me, please. This was an emotional month full of changes.

As every January does, this year started out with my birthday on the 5th! Brandon took me to my favorite restaurant and then we did some shopping with our Christmas gift cards in Nashville. While I don't think it's connected with my brain yet that I'm 26 (the 30's side of my 20's) I also feel like I've been 26 for awhile now. Does that ever happen to anyone else? You feel like you've reached another age before you actually have? 

The following Friday night, January 11, my sister married her Isaac. As maid-of-honor (and flower-girls' hair dresser/wrangler) I underestimated the amount of responsibilities I would have and would you believe I didn't snap a single picture of me with her, me and Brandon, or anything else? One of her friends had to send me the picture below! It was a beautiful wedding, and perfectly suited to Amie. Maybe when she gets her professional photos back she'll let me post a couple on here.

Our long-awaited baby for Stephen and Tara, Josie Jean, turned one the next Friday, January 18. I can't even tell you what a little ray of sunshine this sweetheart is! Amie had one of Jacob's boys (Jackson) walk her down the aisle at the wedding as the cutest flower girl you ever did see. She walks so well to be so little and smiled and waved all the way down at the crowd of 300+ people. She's such a social butterfly and makes everyone around her just a little bit happier.

The morning of Saturday, January 19, at around 1:30am, my PawPaw passed into eternity at 86 years of age. I can't write much about it yet because he deserves words better than I have the ability to piece together right now. My dad's parents passed away before I was born, so he's the only grandfather I had. My siblings and I had never lost someone this close to us before, and it's been so bittersweet. We wanted him to go on, his state in this physical world was one we didn't want him to have to endure any longer. He'd been declining for nearly 3 years, and especially these past few months our prayers have been for God to bring him into heaven. Still, it's hard to say goodbye, to see my Grandma without him. Knowing he's not struggling anymore is so sweet, but waiting to see him again is where grief comes in. Josie's birthday party was that afternoon, and many of us still went. It was good to see my cousins that day, to share a bit of our "happy sadness" and see Josie with her beautiful smiles :)

5 children, 17 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren

That was my January. A lot of other things happened, and we certainly stayed busy. I learned that if Brandon is on a three day trip I'm a big cry baby, I learned that reunions are the sweetest things. We had a lot of church activities, spent a lot of time with family. 2019 started off with a lot of big changes and I know there's only more on the horizon. 

Jesus brings joy to our sorrow! He's so very good. I hope you've all had a wonderful start to your year!