The Third Sunday

It's Sunday, so we went to visit Elizabeth today. It was harshly cold and Katie was cranky, so it was a short visit, but it was still wonderful to be there. I cleared away the old flowers, added a little glittering snowflake that had been hanging on our Christmas tree and in our home for months and put it on her cross, and put a little praying angel there as well. The angel is a twin to the one that's joined the memorial in our bedroom, so we have one here and one there. I had them for about two years, but last night I cleaned them up, added roses to the halo wreaths that had once been there but had long fallen off or faded, and added little rose bouquets to their hands. I filled Elizabeth's up with flower vase stones to make it heavy, then closed the opening with layers of hot glue.

I've been hard at work this week continuing to clean, try new recipes, and crochet charity baby hats. It feels as though I'm different lately, I so enjoy cleaning. I've been more adventurous with food (I worked with artichoke hearts today! Something I always stayed away from before) and crocheting...okay, well that's the same. I do love to crochet, and doing these tiny little hats are wonderful. I love seeing the pile grow in Elizabeth's memory.

Have I mentioned that we decided what to do in July? I probably mentioned it, but just in case, we now have a plan. It's a plan that makes Elizabeth's birthday seem exciting instead of something to dread. We had planned, while I was pregnant, to go to Build a Bear and let Katie build a bear for herself and one for the baby. The baby's was going to be dressed up so that it was obvious if it was a boy or girl, and we were going to use it to make our gender announcement. Instead, we're going to do it for their birthdays. We're going to get Elizabeth a little Sleeping Beauty bear and Katie can dress up her own. Before this, as Elizabeth's birthday is on a Sunday, we'll go to church and light candles for her. Afterwards, we'll have a birthday cake in her honor. It just feels right to do something to celebrate what life she had and show that she has impacted us so much and will be remembered. It's hard to plan a party for Katie and go through a birthday myself in July and know that one birthday is missing. I couldn't do it, I started to dread July, and this is helping so much. We're going to live on and be as happy as we can while we celebrate our daughter in heaven.

Here's some pictures from this weekend:

Elizabeth's:

 

Twenty Four Hats:

 

Some of them with rose embellishments: