The past two days have been a whirlwind for me. Christmas was hard, as expected. I woke up with a lump in my throat. There wasn’t a happy little boy waiting in his crib to be picked up. I didn’t get to help him rip through all the wrapping paper on his presents. So many things I had planned for his first Christmas that just didn’t happen. They couldn’t without him here. I had to pretend the day wasn’t even Christmas to get through it. Yet, I made it, only to awake the next morning with a high fever and cold chills. My whole body ached. I slept for more than half of the day, which I desperately needed. Some part of me thinks yesterday physical pain was reflective of how my I would feel emotionally today.

What makes this Tuesday, thirty-eight weeks, such a triggering day? More time has passed than Jensen was alive. I had thirty-eight weeks with him and now another has come and went. It seems outrageous that this time has come so quickly. I hate that it’s been this long, even though I knew it would happen at some point. (Sometimes I wish you all could see the pauses I take while writing. This is hitting me really hard.) Honestly, I didn’t really think I would be able to make it this far. I wonder how my heart hasn’t stopped even though his did. It seems weird to think, but how does that happen. How does my heart keep beating for thirty-eight week when little heart that was inside me stopped?

Grief makes you question everything in almost a wave type fashion. Things you’ve thought you’ve come to terms with, come up back up during certain days. Questions you though you’ve let go are asked again. I keep replaying everything in my mind. From the day he was born and how I was feeling last year, it’s all just crazy. How can everything change in just one short year? Last year was such a happy time for me and this year was just sad. There’s no other way to describe it. I look at me now without Jensen and I hate this. I wish this wasn’t my life. All of this doesn’t help with this particular week and events that I’m right in the middle of. With Christmas, this day, and New Years coming up, I’m just thankful I haven’t pulled out my hair yet.

I don’t know how present I’m going to be for the rest of the week. There’s a fog around me and I’m trying with all my might to stop the year from changing. Ridiculous right? I can’t fathom that I’m leaving 2016 without Jensen. My future was always supposed to have him here with me. This last year was supposed to be the happiest in my life. Somehow 2016 feels safe to stay in no matter how horrible it was. It will always hold Jensen. This year will have always taught me love and perseverance. It was the year I learned I could survive anything thrown at me. I wish it turned out to be a different year, but I could never hate it.

This is Jensen’s year.

And because it’s Jensen’s year and has been so impactful on me, I’ll always carry 2016. This year has seen the best and worst of me. It’s opened up a world I never thought I would be apart of. It made me feel lost and found again. It’s brought me wonderful friendships and has let others dissolve. It shown me the harsh reality of this world. It’s allowed me to grow. It welcomed the best little guy I’ll ever know. It’s been full of love and loss.

Since today is such a big day of this grief journey, I wanted to share something special with you all. As I wrote about this year and how I’ll always carry it with me, I kept thinking of this picture. Those little, big hands hold my heart. They hold this year and all that it has brought. I see those hands and wish they could have squeezed my finger or searched for mine as he would begin to walk. Oh how I wish 2016 would have turned out so differently, but I will always have Jensen and the love he brings to me each and every day; no matter the year.