I'm really thankful

that my nephew lived with us up until June. At first when my brother passed away, I kind of hated that he had not spent as much time with him during the time he was living with us. My brother was only seeing him about 1x a month, but you know what maybe it was meant to be that way. They still had a great relationship and my nephew idolized his father anyway and of course even more so now. Since my brother passed, my oldest nephew still has someone who he looks to as a father figure and that is DH. He is on the phone with him right now as I type. My nephew calls him to discuss his feelings, his day to day problems, ect. My nephew has had a really rough time and his GF whom he met while living with us and had been with for over a year now who was also in a similar situation (was over 19 still in high school, living w/ grandparents- she is actually older than him) decided the week after my brother died that my nephew needed to "fix" his life and told him she thought they needed a break until he gets his life in order. She told him how he needed to go back to school, buy a car and get a better job even though she's living with her grandparents, only doing work-study, school and her grandparents bought her a car she is only allowed to drive to and from school. Nephew has been working at a shoe store for a while now, is doing great there and in the process of enrolling in community college next semester. She broke up with him 2 days after the memorial service. Real winner....he of course is heartbroken.

Anyway, I am so thankful DH can be there for my nephew. My nephew is living with SIL (his mom) and my brother's middle boy also lives there (15yo nephew is still living with SIL's brother) and DH is helping him try to be the strong man his brothers and sister need right now since no one else can really fill that role for them. I'm really proud of how he is doing.