Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Ice Day

Our snow day yesterday turned into an ice day. The ice day turned into
a power outage night. And power outage day today. Still no power. We
brought the girls to a hotel. Figured a freezing cold house was no
place for a kid with mono. The girls and I went exploring. They wanted
to climb all the stairs. I said sure. Gotta burn off that cooped-up-in-
a-hotel-room-since-breakfast energy somehow, right?

Friday, January 29, 2010

Aunt Erin

I do not remember how it even started, but Sophie has always wanted to send hugs and kisses to my sister in heaven via helium balloon. Erin died just before Sophie turned 2, but they were very close before she died. In her little mind, it was a way to send love to a place she really didn't completely grasp. While I totally understand that the concept is nowhere near theologically sound, it was something that comforted her, so we let her do it. Now almost five years later, she still does it. And now so does my sweet Ella, who never got the chance to meet her Aunt Erin.

It does not matter where the balloon comes from. The process is always the same. Everyone has to kiss the balloon. Everyone has to hug the balloon. Then the balloon heads up to "take our love to Aunt Erin".

Aunt Erin has "gotten" love balloons from birthday parties, school parties, restaurants, ballgames, even three from Disney World. This morning, Ellie decided that she was ready to send her birthday balloon from Sophie to Aunt Erin. So, we hugged it. We kissed it. And we headed outside and watched it float away. I couldn't help but get a bit teary -eyed hearing my sweet youngest daughter holler "I love yous" to the aunt she never knew but that I have always prayed she would know all about.

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Time is flying.

This is a picture of Ella on the wall at our church. It was taken
before she was a year old. So funny to me - on one hand, it seems it
was just yesterday I saw it for the first time. On the other, her baby
days seem so long ago! How does that happen?