Jenna, I don’t even know where to start this post. It just hurts to think of our mornings not starting with my kids running to you and Angela.

I love how you’d walk through our quad on the way from the parking lot only to find yourself still here twenty minutes later, covered in kids. And you’d just laugh and have nowhere to be but right here in the middle of your seven nieces and nephews.

Jenna, you are so incredibly precious to us.

You’re the prefect balance of wild fun and such beautiful heart.

You have this wonderful ability to attract delight like a magnet.

We all know why the kids all run to you. You’re just our Jenna!

Sweet sister, thank you for being willing to just sit and hold my toddler while she works through vaccination discomforts by trying to stand on your lap. She was the happiest she was all day when she was in your arms.

Thank you for your words of affirmation for my little ladies as they can’t wait to share with you their school work from the week.

Thank you for seeking out real conversations as Rachael sorts through the loss of leaving.

Thank you for dancing down the sidewalks, spontaneously breaking into song, and willingly sharing nutella at the kid table. Jenna, they all just know they are treasured in your arms. Thank you for being a safe comfort to them amidst all this change.

And oh, Jenna, how we all smile more when you’re around. You have a way of bringing the kid out of everyone.

And then there’s the quiet times when you just pour over Jesus, inviting us all to marvel in His wonder.

 

Dear Jenna, I’m going to miss you like crazy. I find myself fighting back denial because I don’t want to face the reality that this is the last week of face-to-face Jenna.

 

But then I remember how you lit up in that NY restaurant speaking Wolof. My heart leaps at your glowing face and Skype feels like a wonderful exchange for you to live in that delight again. I know you’re not ours to keep, even if we’d keep you in a heartbeat, but I am so thankful to have gotten to witness His fire stirring within you for the people He is sending you to. I am tickled pink at His story of bringing you back to the people He has had you fall in love with.

And while I know it hurts, I am thanking my God that you are dancing off to Western Africa again.

We are forever better because of our Jenna.

Through tears and with a lump in my throat I am saying,

“Thank you, Jesus, for our Jenna.”