Jojo Turns Eighteen Years Old!

When I began this blog in 2011, Jojo (Josefina) Janaro was a little over four years old. If you’ve been here since the beginning, you’ve watched her grow up. There are lots of stories about her little kid adventures, especially in the earlier years of the blog. You know how cute she was in those days. (I think she’s still “cute,” but I’ll get in big trouble if I tell her that, because she thinks I’m looking at her like a child if I say “cute.” That’s not what I mean, but… whatever. I can tell her she’s pretty, which is true.) Jojo still looks a bit young for her age, but she has grown a lot. She has reached the 5’ foot marker, and may yet pick up a couple more inches. She no longer stands out in a whole family of short people (I was once 5’10” but I’ve shrunk a bit over the years).

I’m amazed that she’s 18. She made it! I need not tell again the story that has been repeated on the blog many times and is also recounted in my 2010 book—that Jojo was a “pre-mie,” who spent the first seven months of her life in the NICU. It seems so long ago. Before she turned two, my days as a classroom teacher came to an end. So I had (and still have) a lot of time at home with her since I went-on-long-term-disability / “retired” in 2008. I have watched her grow up, and she has had a lot of special attention from her Dad. We’ve always gotten along really well, even during her adolescence. Jojo has tried to explain to me what “goes on inside the head” of a teenage girl, while I have tried to help her “interpret” the chaos that is the mind of a teenage boy (I still remember, and it hasn’t changed that much). For at least the past dozen years, Jojo and I have been watching TV together and having discussions of the themes that come up. We’ve had some really good conversations, and I hope we will continue for years to come.

Daddy and Jojo, from a long time ago (2017)

We are so grateful to God for her. She has been a mysterious and wonderful gift entrusted to us by Christ along with our other four grown-up “kids,” and now—of course—the grandchildren too. So many great gifts! 

Happy Birthday Josefina! We love you!