Dear Jeni,

You're beautiful.  

When I look at you I see the kind of beauty that I pray everyone sees, and the type that I hope everyone longs for in their own lives.  It's an internal beauty.  A meek, gentle, kind, giving kind of beauty.  Besides being one of the most loving people I know you are also one of the most tender.  There is a unique quality about your character that most people will never attain in their entire lives.  

We are only a few months into this year and already it has been one of deep change.  When I need you, you are here.  You don't hesitate, you don't question.  You trust that when I say I need you, I really do.  This year as I lay in my bed trembling, not over the pain of Mabel's reality but of my own, you crawled beside me and your presence comforted me.  Your tiny frame surrounded mine time and time again through the sobs and despair that I felt in moments that I didn't think would ever end.  And in the unending torment of those moments, you held me.  

And held me together.

 Just a few months later, on your birthday, I can look at your smile and see my own.  I hear your laugh and mine together and realize that you helped heal me.  We escaped to paradise and in the miles that separated us from the comfort of home, we united in strength.  We were warriors for the kids and for one another.  

Although, you always are for me.  

People may not know it but I assume now that they do--but you save me just by being you...

...and you always have. 

 The day that you were born I received the greatest gift.  Most people aren't privileged enough to wake up beside their best friend every day of their childhood and most every day in their adulthood.  

But I am.  

Some people don't appreciate the gift that a sister is; the quiet, knowing, precious bond that sister's share.  

But I do.  

 I trust God on many days because of you.  I see you and I know that the plan He must have for our lives, together, is great.  We can't even understand it-the details in which He is lining up for our future days.  But I do know that He has planned them perfectly and in these moments of unknown, it's all still perfect.  

I am so proud of you in your every day.  Your life journey is beautiful and it is yours.  Don't ever forget that the story you are living is the one you will tell and it is one to be proud of.  You are anything but ordinary!  You are worthy and deserving of love, laughter and whatever your heart can dream.  

I pray that this year brings the discovery of your true self.  

I pray that it brings happiness that you tap into from the wells deep in your spirit.

And I pray that in it all we grow together, as we always have, to find out exactly what we're made of.

Happy Birthday Jeni Elaine.

I adore you.