charlaanne

Jack Galin

5.24.2021

When I’m feeling down, I only have to scroll through the hundreds of photos and videos I have of him on my phone. I cannot think of him without smiling and whispering a prayer of thanksgiving.

seven hundred and eleven days

5.15.2021

After Galin died, I wanted everything to be completely different. Anything that was the same, minus him, felt unbearable to me. We started eating different kinds of food. We stopped eating dinner at the kitchen table. We learned how to play new games. We celebrated special occasions differently. After 711 days, this ‘new’ life is starting to feel normal, and being Galin’s wife is starting to feel like something that happened in a different lifetime. Does grief get easier to bear because the person you lose starts feeling more and more like a dream? A dream you desperately wish could be reality but know it never will be.

I asked Jaxson,

5.11.2021

“If you could do one thing just by thinking about it, what would you do? His answer, “Make you happy forever.”

Yesterday was warm and sunny.

4.20.2021

The little kids and I rode bikes around the neighborhood and ate dinner on our front porch. Today this happened!

I am grateful for a risen Savior. Because He lives, I have hope for the future.

4.4.2021

Last year it felt too painful to do any of our usual Easter activities. This year I decided to make it up to the kids by making things extra special. I filled their Easter baskets with things they love, and we dyed Easter eggs. We went to church and spent the day hanging out with family.

Today Galin would have been 47.

3.25.2021

There is nothing I would love more than to celebrate this special day with him. The kids and I would make him all his favorite foods. We would spoil him with gifts and handmade cards. We would tell him how much we love him. We would wrap our arms around him and never let him go.

photo taken on Galin's 35th birthday

Life has changed so much

since I took these photos in February 2019. It seems like a different lifetime. 

I am happy to say Lily’s adorable stitching survived the tornado.

Q & A with Jaxson

3.5.2021

what makes you happy: “Whenever you take us to get ice cream, playing games with you, and whenever we see Jack.” 

what makes you sad: “Missing Daddy.”

favorite dessert: “If I had to choose, it would be a cookie, because you do make pretty good cookies.”

favorite Bible verse: “One of the really short ones.”

best friend: “If I had to choose, it would be Mason. You mean my bestest, bestest? Okay, yeah I told you.”

worst food: “If I had to choose, it would be raspberries. I’m not a big fan of them.” 

greatest wish: “To live in a mansion, one huge RV, and a small pantry with a lot of carrots in there, and to have a lot of money to give it to the poor.”

if you could do one thing to change the world, what would it be: “Make it better by spreading the message about Jesus.”

favorite summer activity: “Stay inside and be by some cool air.”

how many kids do you want when you grow up: “One is enough, because if I had too many kids who would hold them all. That would be really hard.”