#97: holy crap

5 months to go!!!! I cannot believe how quickly the last 13 months have flown past! All three of our nephews and nieces have turned either one or two and are all quickly approaching their next birthdays (which I'm hoping will translate into a little cooperation come June 25th!) and are developing their own amazing and interesting personalities. J has started his last semester of undergrad (thank God for that). I bought a wedding dress...a WEDDING DRESS. It sounds so crazy to me. I have purchased things for what will be our first home together and also marking us becoming responsible and mature adults (hahaha).

It seems so surreal to me that in 5 short months, I will no longer live with my parents. I've never gone more than a day without talking to either parent and I don't think I've gone more than two or three weeks without seeing them. So it kind of (ok, really) makes me sad to think I won't be living with them anymore. They've given so much over the past 23 years and the most important thing they've given me is their unconditional love and support. They've given me so much wisdom and advice. We laugh so much together (usually because I'm being ridiculously hyper and they can't believe I came from them) and they've always had my best interests at heart. I've bonded with my dad over basketball and trains and with my mom over shopping and Restaurant Story (I made fun of her for playing it when she first got her iPhone and less than four months after getting mine, I'm addicted to it) and so much more. They have been so supportive of mine and J's relationship: through our ups and downs, and especially when J was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in February 2008.

For those of you who don't know, my dad and brother both have type 1 diabetes, so I've dealt with it for as long as I can remember. I also remember telling myself that I could never marry someone with a life long illness. My plan was to find somebody perfectly healthy, settle down, get married and have perfectly healthy babies. Enter J. He was perfectly healthy (as far as we both knew) when we met and began dating. And less than a year into our relationship, God gave me the sign that He sometimes (if not always) has a different plan for my life than I do. I know J thought I'd get as far away from him as possible because of his diagnosis (and trust me, I thought about it), but I just knew even more at that moment, that we were meant to be together. Who better to be married to than a girl who knows A LOT about the illness you were just diagnosed with? We truly are a match made in heaven. And even though, with J being diabetic and me being a carrier, our kids have a 75% chance of being diabetic, I know that we will take whatever comes our way head on. Together. Ya know...if we ever decide to have kids ;)

So, in conclusion (haha sounds like the end of a lot of my early college papers), I would just like to say: I have learned a lot from my parents over the last 23 years and I hope to learn just as much from J (like the patience and gentleness things he's got going on) for the next 23+ years. Oh, and thanks for reading my short novel. Don't judge me if there's typos, I'm on my iPhone and I'll fix them tomorrow :)