Now I'm The One Jumping For Joy!

I used this picture once for a Wordless Wednesday, but I'm re-posting it because it sort of describes how I feel at the moment. The two people in the picture are my daughter, Jessica and her son, CJ. Jess has been in the USAF for the past 6 years. She was planning on re-enlisting for the next four years, and moving herself and my grandson to the state of Georgia. That is, up until this past Thursday, (the day she was actually supposed to do the re-enlisting), when she woke up to all that snow that I posted about a few days ago. The whole Air Force base was shut down during blizzard-like conditions, and she wasn't able to go anywhere that day. She called me and said she thought that this was a pretty sure sign from God that she wasn't supposed to re-up for another 4 years. She didn't even get her car dug out until sometime on Saturday. I didn't really believe she was serious about not re-enlisting, but I was sort of hoping so in the back of my mind.

We have 3 grandsons. There is 5 1/2 year old "AJ", who lives with his dad, (my son Jeremy), in Arizona. Little "HD" who will be 1 year old on Dec. 23 lives with his mom and dad, (Ray's son, Dan and his wife T.) in Oregon. And then there is "CJ", who just turned 4 a couple of weeks ago. I sometimes feel more like a second mom to him than his grandma. He lived with us for 5 months while Jess was doing her tour of duty in Iraq. We had him from the time he was 10 months old until he was 15 mos. old. Which means he was with us for his 1st birthday, his first toddling steps, and probably a few of his first words too. That was all really hard on his mom, but Ray and I got pretty close to the little guy while he was with us.

For the past couple of years, Jess and CJ have lived in Rapid City, SD, (which is far enough from us already here in central MN), but we could get there in a day's drive at least, if we wanted to visit them. I was NOT looking forward to them moving all the way to GA! If we had all kinds of money, it might be fun to travel to three different corners of the country to visit the kids and grandkids...but unfortunately we do not.

Anyway, she called me tonight and asked if they could live with us. Of course, I said yes! Not that it would be a permanent situation, but at least until she can find a job, and an apartment for them. I'm so excited! She gets out in early December, and then she is DONE. I'm proud of my kids for serving their country in the military, but I think 6 years is enough. I'll have them home for Christmas! I never thought I'd say this in a million years, but Thank You, GOD for the SNOW!