Surprise Flowers For Meredith & An Honor From Shauna

July 4th weekend, we went to East Texas to have dinner and fireworks with my brother and his wife. He lives in the house where we grew up, the house Mother and Dad built in the 1930s. It has been remodeled several times and the small board house is now a larger bricked one. Meredith is buried in the cemetery at "home" right next to my maternal grandmother. I take her new artificial flowers when I go. This time, there was a surprise at her grave - a small nosegay of fresh orange and green blossoms. There was one like it for my great nephew who is buried next to her. The green flowers were tiny, exotic cymbidian orchids. I was thrilled that someone remembered Meredith & Joshua and asked all the family members who had placed the flowers. No one in our family did and the benefactor remains a mystery. I am very thankful to this person who lifted a mother's heart.

The first picture above was made by Shauna who has the blog "Pinwheels From Heaven." Shauna has made pinwheel and balloon pictures for Meredith that I need to post soon. She honored me by mentioning my name in her blog with the lamb picture. Shauna, I LOVE lambs!They remind me of innocence and sweetness, of Jesus, the Lamb of God and the Great Shepherd. Thank you for associating my name with a lamb!

The angel picture reminds me of our girls in Heaven - Meredith and Shauna's babies Janessa and Hope. Someday we will get to see and hold our babies.

If I Were Rich...

I get lots of catalogues and love to shop with my daughters. These days, a lot of it is window shopping, though. All the time I see items that remind me of your babies. Lots of ladybug items for the garden, angels, bears, frogs, butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbirds and other things that blogging Moms have mentioned. They can be on lovely jeweled cloissone boxes, garden flags, jewelry, small statuary, blown glass - the items are endless. If I were rich, I would carefully choose a gift for each of you grieving Moms. I would wrap it beautifully and send it to you. But I'm not rich, so just know that often I think of your babies when I see a remembrance of your child. All of you Moms are very often on my mind, in my heart, and in my prayers.

What I can do right now is make you a FREE memorial scrapbook tag for your baby. One Mom called hers an "Angel tag."

I have rested up from making the last batch, so please send me your information and spread the word to others.

I will need:

baby's name and dates

colors you like

something that may remind you of your child

an address to mail the tag to.

Please email me the info - sboyette@tx.rr.com

Blessings to you all as you travel your journey of child loss.

You Made Me A Mother

The world may never notice

If a snowdrop doesn't bloom,

Or even pause to wonder

If the petals fall too soon.

But every life that ever forms

Or ever comes to be,

Touches the world in some small way

For all eternity.

The little one we longed for

Was swiftly here and gone

But the love that was then planted

Is a light that still shines on.

And though our arms are empty,

Our heart knows what to do.

Every beating of our hearts

Says that we do love you.

- Author Unknown

Meredith, you made me a Mother. I was blessed to have three other babies, but I will never forget you, my first. xoxo

Meredith's Birthday Pictures From October

Three balloons Stan & I released for Meredith

Twin #2 Angie, her boyfriend Charlie, his children, Hubby and me

Three candles, one for each day of her life

Twin #1 Amanda & her daughter Morgan

My niece Charmaine & her fiance, Mike

Our son Adam, his wife Sarah & children

Sweet gift from Bree, mother to an angel, Ella, and a ladybug, Miss Nora

The Princess Castle pinata

Angel fom my dear friend, Rita, mother to baby Krystal, in Heaven since 1972

Darling bear from Heather and her angel, Madelyn. Heather has since been blessed with a son, Liam

This tablecloth belonged to my mother, who would be 101 if she were still here

Roses for our One Perfect Rose. One day soon I want to post the story I wrote about her that has this title.

I may have mentioned before that procrastination is one of my vices. I don't drink, I don't smoke, but I tend to put things off. My daughter took pictures of Meredith's birthday party on October 3rd of last year and she loaded them onto my computer a while back. So friends, I now share with you the photos from our baby's first ever Celebration of Life, even though I did a horrible job of loading them - totally out of order. These aren't all the pictures, just the highlights. We took our son & two daughters plus their families to Outback Steakhouse. I also invited my niece and her fiance. Then we went to our daughters ' house and had cake, a princess pinata for the children, and a balloon release. Stan & I released the three balloons in the sky that you see pictured - one for each day of her earthly life.

I took one of the vintage baby planters that I collect to the store where we ordered the cake as they had a nice floral shop, too. The sweet lady I spoke with didn't have a very good command of the English language and apparently misunderstood what I wanted. Therefore, the flowers are very short in the planter! It didn't really matter - I've learned there are a lots worse things to worry about. There was a special celestial sighting that night so my son set up the telescope. I can't remember what it was. We had a wonderful time, one of the highlights of my life. Angie said she had not seen me smile that much in a long time.

Still Offering Free Tags for BLMs

My sweet friend Twyla from Two Crazy Crafters just put this lamb on her blog so I borrowed it because it reminds me of our precious babies, so innocent and new. If anyone came across my blog and isn't familiar with the term "BLM" I thought I should explain. "BLM" stands for Baby Loss Moms. BLMs have helped me so much in my grief journey and I want to give back to this community. My daughter Angie and I have shopped Joann's, the Hallmark store for stickers, Walmart, Dollar Tree, Michael's, and other places for my supplies. I have sent out several tags and am ready to make more. Please refer to the previous post for the pertinent information I need. Sending love to all of you!

BLMS - A Gift For You

Hi everyone! The spring weather is so pretty around here. I love it! Before long, Texas will be hot and dry, but for now, it is enjoyable. Easter is my favorite holiday, I believe. I love the feeling of renewal, of seeing flowers bloom, enjoying the spring animal babies, and knowing that Christ arose from the grave on that day. I have always loved Easter images, and some years when my birthday actually fell on Easter Sunday, I felt so honored that it happened that way.

Last year about this time, I decided to start making memorial scrapbook tags for Mother's Day. I wanted to make tags honoring babies who had gone to Heaven. I did do that project, sending tags to all the moms for whom I had addresses. I sent out around 60 tags, and have sent out many others since then. I would be honored to make one for your child in Heaven, at no cost to you. Please feel free to tell other bereaved moms about this.

If you would like a tag (even if I have sent you one before and you would like a different one)

please send the following information to me at sboyette@tx.rr.com or leave a comment on this post. I would need:

Colors you like

Baby's (or babies') names(s)

Dates of birth &/or passing

Something that reminds you of your child, like butterflies, frogs, etc.

An address to mail it to

THE ADDRESS WILL NOT BE SHARED WITH ANYONE ELSE!

These are just tags made from scrapbook paper, ribbon, stickers, etc., but totally made from my heart. Please tell other BLMs. I would love to give others this gift from my heart.

Thankful and Unafraid

Three years ago I was in the hospital, in ICU. One Thursday afternoon, with a rare March snow on the ground, I was feeling fine and preparing to go shopping with my daughter in law to our usual twice yearly children's consignment sale. I'm a stubborn sort. My husband said it was too icy to drive to Fort Worth but I just knew the highways were melting. When I got on the main roads, I discovered that he was right. I called my DIL to tell her I wouldn't be coming, headed to get some food at Chick-Fil-A and went home. We ate as we watched the early evening news and I started feeling chilly. I got in the bed to get warm and got up much later, still feeling bad. By 3 a.m. the next morning, I was coughing up blood. I didn't wake anyone, but waited to call my daughter across the street when I knew she would be up getting her little girl ready for school.

I was so ill, she had a hard time getting me dressed and to the hospital. My hubby is disabled so I knew he couldn't take me.

I went from feeling completely fine one afternoon to being deathly ill the next morning. Doctors said I had septic shock, and my major organs were shutting down one by one. They didn't know the source of the infection, but it was later attributed to pneumonia in my left lung. After a long hospital stay I went home to begin therapy, as I was left rather weak. In fact, I have never fully recovered from the illness that nearly took my life. My heart and lungs were damaged by the infection. One doctor said if my daughter had gotten me there a few minutes later, it might have been too late. That would have been my fault, certainly not hers.

What does this have to do with Meredith's story? I am definitely thankful to be alive, to be able to enjoy my family and God's world. While I was so ill, I discovered that I was definitely not afraid to die. In fact, I wondered if I would be seeing Meredith soon. I didn't want to leave my family alone - I wanted to be around to be with them for many years, and still do.

Before, I never had a doubt that there is a God, Jesus, and Heaven. Being so ill reinforced those beliefs. I'm extremely grateful for parents who brought me up to believe in the Lord. I'm thankful to be alive, and thankful to have assurance of Heaven.

"We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

2 Corinthians 4:18