19 years ago, we were a family of three, almost four. It was one of those November days that was warm-ish, but you knew it was going to be cold in a few hours. I was waddling to a regular doctor’s appointment, ready to have this second girl. It was my plan to have her that day, and I hoped that my doctor would go along with it. Luckily, my doctor agreed that I was ready, thanks to a crazy weather forecast. We welcomed our Josie at 7:49 PM, amidst a memorable Deal or No Deal episode, just before a wild 18 inches of snow fell.
All according to plan.
This is indicative of our Josie today: always having a plan, a grand one, sometimes last-minute, usually fun.
While her plans as an elementary kid usually involved how she could spend the night at Alayna’s just one more night (after being there already for one), or how “five more minutes” after curfew was “just a part of the travel” in her plan, in the last year, we had to figure out how to let this kid and her energy go and figure out her own life, nine hours away. We had to trust her plan (still sometimes a last-minute one with addenda and bigger plans on the side, but still, a plan). Here’s the great news: she did it. She is doing it, and while we worried about her, we knew she could.
On her birthday, which also lands on Thanksgiving, we are so thankful (for lack of a better term) that our Josie is figuring out her life according to her plan, her terms, her way. That doesn’t mean that strife doesn’t happen, frustrations arise, disappointments happen, but her ability to rise above and figure it out has been something to watch. We are here for it and are enjoying being a part of it when we are included in the plan.
Dearest Josie,
I know that you have bigger plans for a big life, and I am so excited to watch you figure it out. As a fellow planner, it makes my heart sing to hear all of the things you hope to accomplish.
But life doesn’t always work out according to the “plan” in our mind. There’s a bigger one in play, and I pray that you are trusting in that plan and will hold onto that when disappointments come, because they will.
We love you more than you know, loving you more and more as you grow into the young woman I saw glimpses of as you pulled on your plastic high heels at three and “went to work at the office” at your little play table. We see who God has planned for you to become, and we are so thankful that you surround yourself with people who believe in you and see you in that way, too.
Happiest of birthdays to our Josephine Elisabeth.
Love,
Mom