The day is like any other day.  Yet the similarities are eerily similar.

The year of our Lord 2019 holds the same number of “Friday the 13th”s as 2013, and they both occurred in the same months (September and December).

We have plans to attend a Rapid City Rush hockey game tonight, just as we did six years ago.  Though tonight’s game is “Star Wars” themed (and you and mom are to blame for introducing me to that movie which I have a deep love for now).

Then I stop and pause thinking of how much has changed since that day.

Florida State would go on to win their third football National Championship the following month, yet would only have one more successful season (by FSU standards) and have since had two different head coaches since Jimbo left for Texas A&M.  The most recent just being hired earlier this week.

Sarah and I are both working at different jobs now, and both love what we’re doing.

Our two older children are in their early twenties and navigating that thing called “adulthood”.

I’ve been blessed to be able to adopt our youngest child in 2018 and she has just a little over one semester before she crosses the stage as a high school graduate.

Sarah and I have been blessed three times as grandparents with the most recent entering the world this past July and our oldest turning five this past September.  We’ve also made the choice to raise our middle grandchild and have been doing so since the end of June 2016, when she was just shy of six months old.  She’ll be four in January and most definitely keeps us on our toes.

I know you’ve been watching all of these events unfold from on high, and I would have loved the opportunity to chat with you about all these events as they unfolded.  But we do chat often, though through a different medium.

Know that we love and miss you dearly.  It’s hard to believe that six years has gone by and it’s strange that we have very similar events planned on the same day of the week as that fateful day.  Maybe it’s just me that finds that fact interesting.  But we will soldier on to enjoy the aspects of it and remember you with love.