To those that mean so much to us,
This is a note to tell you how much you are cared about and loved. Yesterday I attended a funeral for an eight-year-old little girl. She was a student at Greenville where I taught and where her mom also worked. She was such a sweet little girl with so many friends. She always lit up a room and had a certain sass about her even in her wheelchair. Even though we all knew that Kayse had a degenerative disease, she lived her life to the fullest and no one around her was ever sad. Going to the visitation on Tuesday I was in utter amazement to watch her parents hold up so well. They were standing around smiling and chatting with family and friends while their precious little girl lay in the casket, which by the way, she looked absolutely beautiful. And yesterday at her funeral I was still in awe of not only her parents, but also her three siblings. I can’t say that I would do that well.
Okay, so why the big elaborate story? To remind us all that we need to live every day as though it is our last. To not take anything or anyone for granted because only God knows how much time we have with them. Love each other unconditionally. Show love to others that we may pass in the street or at the store. Give a helping hand or a compliment to someone because you never know how much that could mean to them. Try to show kindness to at least one person that you see out somewhere every day. If we all did that what a much better world we would live in.
Also, please know how much I/we love you! We are truly blessed with an amazing family and fabulous friends! I know it is sometimes difficult for us as a family and a couple to get out and see our family and friends or do things with you, but please know that it isn’t because we don’t want to. There are times when we can’t get a sitter and Bella is one of those babies that won’t sleep just anywhere. No, she has to sleep in her own bed. And then if we keep her out too late and she gets overly tired we have a greater chance of her waking up with night terrors at some point during the night. And there are things that we would love to go out and do with you, but as our kids would say,”Dave Ramsey says it’s not in the budget!” (we have trained them well!) We have worked so hard over the past two and a half years to get out of debt. We are almost there! All we have is Aaron’s car loan and my student loan and we will be finished! WOO HOO! So, if anyone has an extra 33k lying around and would like to make a donation to the “McKims Want to Get Out of Debt Fund” we would greatly appreciate it! ;-) I know that is still quite a bit of debt, but much better than the 83k we had when we started. So know we are working diligently to get out of debt and when it’s over we will have more funds to do more things. So keep asking/inviting us and one day the answer will be yes! (we tell our neighbors this a lot…thankfully they like us the way we are and still invite us over for cookouts and things. We have some awesome neighbors! )
So the moral of my story is that you are loved! Whether you were meant to be in my life/our lives for a moment or a life time you are loved. If I could I would sing the song we sang in kindergarten that goes like this:
I think you’re wonderful
I think you’re marvelous
I think you’re beautiful and magical and filled with curiosity….and dreams!
Thank you for being part of my life/our lives! We love you very much and are so blessed and thankful to know you because you are wonderful, marvelous, and beautiful!
With much love,
The McKims
Aaron, Jenny, Skyla, Garrett, and Arabella
