We learned that the official date for our Adoption Day will be June 14th! This is the same day as my niece’s birthday, so I hope she does not mind sharing the special event. We thought about pushing the adoption to a later date, but then could not imagine explaining to our son that it could have been official sooner, but we chose to wait. We will always be sure that my niece knows it is HER day and Callen is just sharing it.

We look forward to our sixth and final visit with our agency at their annual adoption picnic. We are eager to see other AIM families created through adoption and other families that may be connected to our son. I will post more about this experience later, but we are hopeful to see some familiar faces and celebrate adoption and the love of this ministry.

Sadly, my grandfather passed away on Thursday evening. He had suffered from Alzheimer’s for many years so it was bittersweet. On one hand, he gets his mind back and is reunited with his love of 65 years (maybe more, but I lost count). He is also able to worship Jesus every day with the angels in heaven and there is no better place to be. I am sad because I loved getting to hold his hand. I also loved that he met my son so that he can tell my grandmother all about him. Alzheimer’s is an uglyl disease in that you lose your loved one over and over as the disease progresses. I would always leave him happy that I saw him, but upset that he was worse than the time before. At one point, you just wanted them to stop suffering. The death is not quick…it is a long goodbye, but I am thankful that I had the opportunity to say goodbye because I know many do not.

Loving Jesus is a beautiful thing in death because He conquered it. My grandparents filled out this memory book for my brother and I so we could remember their lives. Here is his answer to the question “If you could go back to any age in your life, which age would it be and why?”

I love his response because it is so wise. He wrote, “I enjoyed lots of good times with my family, but I do not want to go back to any of them. I look forward to the good times ahead.” What beautiful words to sum up a beautiful man.

The good new is: Jesus came to conquer death so that we would not be slaves to it. There will be many good times ahead that we can live in memory of my Paw Paw.