Jenna

She was blond and curly headed. Quiet and a little shy. My sweet little middle child- only girl and spoiled rotten. She had (and still has) more clothes, more dolls, more jewelry and make up then one little girl ever needed. But we kept piling it on.  She was my buddy. I'd grab her and take off on saturday mornings- escape from the boys. We'd go to lunch, go shopping, go to the library and she would talk to me.  I listened through all her life, drama and boys, drama and those girls who were mean, drama and what she wanted to do with her life. Anyone who has had a girl knows there is Drama. Junior High is a mine field with life and death situations every day. I was so glad to see her go to High School- maybe then the drama would settle down! It did. She found her footing and her love for cheering and broke out of her shyness.  She had speech problems when she was small and that brought on her shyness around others but by the time she was in High School and had so many friends, and one friend who was pushed her to be outgoing,( and a mother who told her she could do anything- not to worry about what others thought) she tried out for Cheerleading and made it. She cheered the whole of high school and then one year in college. She loved it. She was great at it! And she still is the most beautiful cheerleader that high school ever saw! :)  But that wasn't her goal in life- it was something she liked but she had plans. She was going to meet and fall in love with a Prince and serve God with that Prince.  I want her to have some kind of career, I still pray and hope she gets a degree and I think she will eventually, but Jenna loved babies.  She started babysitting when she was eleven, She worked a day care, she became a nanny for one year before college and now that she is back home- she babysits again.  The career she wants has to do with children counseling. And one day soon she wants to be a mother.  Jenna went off to college with her brother in tow- they got an apartment and both started at Central Bible College in 2008.  The first few months were very hard for me- I missed her like crazy and knew it wouldn't be long before God brought someone special to her and I would be losing her in a different way.  That happened in February of 2009. She was getting ready to go on a missionary trip to Belize and called me and told me she met a boy who had to be the most handsomest man she had ever met and when she got back she was going on a date with him. Ok, I thought, no biggie.  But it turned out it was a biggie. She dated him for a few months and he went home for the summer and then she stayed in Springfield to work while her brother went to Florida. I only got to see her twice that summer, but both times her whole visit was talk about this man named Benjamin.  He was handsome, he loved God, he wanted to be a Pastor, he was so handsome, he was so nice. "I think I'm in love with him Mom." "Jenna don't rush it." but she would look at me like my head was on backwards. Don't rush it? She had been waiting her whole life to fall in love, and now I was saying don't rush it.  In late August 2009 Earl and I went out to springfield to see her and Jamie and to officially meet Benjamin. He was nervous, understandably. She would whisper to me "Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he handsome?" And I would nod and think yes but is this too soon?  As we were pac king our bags up to head home I carried a bag out and Earl and Ben were in a deep conversation by the van. "What was that?" I asked my husband. "He just asked if he could marry our daughter. I told him yes."  By the time we arrived home that night, Jenna called and said they were engaged. Whew. 2009 just call it whirlwind.