gabe's day

Yesterday ended up being a beautiful day - weather wise and Gabe wise. It was a tearful day for me, but definitely more sweet than bitter. We lugged Jonah around town for about four hours. It was a day of many firsts for him, and I have LOTS (116 to be exact) of great pictures of the day, but I can't fit all of it into one post. So, for now, I'll just post some Gabe related pictures.

We bought three blue balloons and each wrote (I may or may not have helped Jonah with his) a little message to send up to Gabe.

We then drove out to Gardens of Memory, the cemetery (I hate that word) where Gabe is buried. Here are the pictures I took while I was driving. They were just hold up and snap pictures. Don't worry, I didn't use the view finder.

See? I told you it was a beautiful day. After arriving and a quick back-of-the-car diaper change (one of the firsts), we let our balloons go. It may appear as if these balloons flew directly into the trees, but I can assure you that most certainly did not happen. Er... (We also have a balloons flying out of the car accidentally, getting stuck in a really tall tree, Matt having to climb down a steep incline into the woods, putting all his weight on a tree, bending it completely backwards, me putting a screaming Jonah into his car seat in the bright sunshine without wind protection to cut the entangled balloons out of the tree, all to let them go - right back into the trees again - story, but I won't go there.)

At least one of the balloons made it. See? We didn't see the remaining two in the trees, so we're pretending those made it too. It was a funny moment, and I was glad that God blessed us with some ridiculous, this-can't-really-be-happening sort of humor to lighten the day. Humor is kind of our way of dealing with things, so it seemed fitting.

Then we spent some time taking some pictures with Jonah at Gabe's spot. I don't know where the pot of yellow flowers and birthday hat came from. They were there when we arrived. Matt, Jonah, and I added the sunflowers.

Jonah - really excited to be at Gabe's spot in the wind. This was just a short-lived moment of weakness. He recovered quickly.

Daddy and a recovered Jonah at Gabe's spot.

After we left there, we went to Lowes, and I picked out a bird feeder for Gabe's garden. I also got two cool decorative garden stakes. One says "Live" and the other is a butterfly. We're going to put all that out this weekend, and then I'll take some pictures. The flowers are beautiful right now, and BOTH of Gabe's dogwoods survived the winter and are looking great.

And then, after dressing change last night, we had some of Gabe's birthday cake. I want to do balloons and a cake every year, and when Jonah is a little older, I'd like to have a picnic out at Gabe's spot. This year we couldn't do it because of how windy it was. It just wasn't practical with Jonah. I also like the idea of adding something to his garden every year. If I keep adding plants and trees though, we'll never be able to move. I wonder how easy it would be to transplant a whole garden???

Anyway, we enjoyed the day very much, and Jonah did great. It's as if he knew it was a special day. We had a great time as a family (I love that word), and it was a great birthday. I look forward to celebrating every year, especially as Jonah gets old enough to understand what it's all about.

Thank you for praying for us. We felt God's peace and a sense of joy as we spent the day celebrating the life of both our sons. And the great news is - GABE LIVES - Praise God!!!