Celebrating Life

I hope you will not think this is too morbid or weird, but I wanted to post a few pictures from our visit to the cemetery yesterday.



Most of our family has not yet seen the stone in place as it took many months to take care of all the details. Each night when we would put Robbie to bed, Bob would stand over him with his hand on his back and pray for him. Robbie's eyes would be wide open but he would lie there very still and listen. Bob prayed that Robbie would be a mighty warrior. He will tell you that he's not sure why he prayed that specifically, but that he felt led to. We believe our Robbie is being used even now as a mighty warrior in heaven and on earth. We hope his story is touching others and reminding them that Jesus is real. He is good and sufficient!

It's hard to read, but above the cross it says: A Mighty Warrior

When we were faced with selecting a burial place for our nearly 20-month-old son only 6 days after he passed away, we had no clue what we were doing. Has anyone ever thought through that decision or took notice of the "nice" cemeteries in the area just in case. Probably not. We had only lived here for 2 1/2 years and were not that familiar with the area. So one of my husband's colleagues recommended a cemetery. Bob and I drove there early Monday morning and were guided across the snow-covered grounds. They showed us the spot, explained the fees, and then took us in to sign the paperwork. I looked at Bob and just told him I couldn't do it. Something about the place seemed so creepy. It was a very old cemetery (I mean hundreds of years old) and had very large monuments throughout the hilly grounds. I just couldn't imagine myself going there with my family. So, we decided to drive around and see what other options there were. We found another cemetery which was relatively new. It is a large, flat area with only flat monuments and basically looks like a park. This was important to us because we knew we would be taking our other children there and didn't want it to be a morbid or creepy place. And I think we made the right decision.

Yesterday, we took Eveley and went to visit Robbie's site. We want her to know that we do not go there because that is where Robbie is. Robbie is in heaven, alive and free. But we go there to remember him and talk about him. We are learning how to do all of this as we go. It's not something they teach in school.



It was a beautiful day yesterday for us to celebrate Robbie's birthday. Eveley loved being free to run around and she especially loved "smelling" all of the flowers!





We sure did miss our Bear (that is what we often called Robbie)!