9 years

Sneaking in a blog post before my Caribbean adventure this week. :)

9 years ago today my grandma passed away. It was all very sudden and I was very pregnant with son #2. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if she were still alive. Would she have visited my home again? I think so. She and Mom came to visit me each fall in college, and she made it here for Braylen's baby dedication. What a trooper she was, sleeping on the couch and all. Because my grandpa passed away in his mid-50's, my grandma lived alone for 18 years. But she vacationed with us every summer, and she stayed with us on the weekends quite a bit. I'm thankful for those memories. She loved her great-grandson, the only one she ever knew. We gave our second son his middle name in honor of my grandma. I wish I'd had more time to know her as an adult. I wish she knew her other great-grandsons. She loved Braylen's blond hair and blue eyes. She would have been happy to see that carried on in Kaleb and Aaron.

So as my mom and I get ready for our mother-daughter cruise, I like to think of it as a celebration of our relationship. Her mom is in heaven, and I've been blessed with sons. But we have each other. God can use all kinds of circumstances to draw people closer together. In this case, He's using lining up this 9 year anniversary with a Caribbean cruise. I love how Great our God is!