#2,000 Another Thousand.

I feel like because at this writing, I’ve written 2,000 blog posts documenting the best things that have happened every single day of my life since January 1, 2010, I should have something very profound to say. When I wrote #1,000, I said all those things that should be said on milestone posts, and all those things still ring 100% true. In fact, it’s my favorite post I’ve ever written because it was a time when I was able to say exactly the thing my heart wanted to say and my words were able to express that. In the 1,000 entries since that day, things have changed:

1. Our careers aren’t static, and they’ve been evolving as our interests have. It’s been an embarrassment of riches; to each do what we love to do and have enough money to live.

2. Four precious, tiny people were added to our family (Harper, first, then Lucy, then Preston, then John Walker).
3. I don’t have those horrible bouts of illness from a decade-long bum appendix.

And things haven’t changed:

1. I still feel like I’m a teenager, surprised by the responsibility and decisions I’m trusted with daily.
2. Ben and I are attached at the hip.
3. I’m happy to have a place where I can focus on the good, the loves, the successes, the heartaches turned victories when the dark corners of my mind and heart start creeping in at the end of a long day. I’m happy to have a neutral place where I can talk about Jesus and what He means to me. I’m happy that you’re here for it, and have been a friend in all those moments.

Today, I’m happy because yesterday my grandmother was nearly lifeless and this morning, she turned a corner. Again, like she’s done so many times over the years. We held hands, and she smiled and spoke as well as she could. She ate applesauce. She breathed easily. She moved her right arm and leg that were paralyzed by stroke yesterday.

Tonight when I came home from a date with my handsome husband, I found a surprise. The week my grandmother moved to the nursing home, Ben went to her house, knowing how heartbroken I was feeling about the loss of time spent on her porch surrounded by the syrupy sweet smell of the four o’clocks she had planted. He dug up some of the bulbs and brought them to our house and we planted them in the side yard. Today they bloomed for the first time, and that smell brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you so much for your prayers, friends. I would be bereft without you!