Category: lulu

Lulu’s Middle Name

Did I ever tell you how we chose Lulu’s middle name?

We’ve never found out with any of our kiddos what we were having. So we had a boy’s first & middle name chosen, but only the name Lulu for a girl.

While I was still pregnant, I saw a pastor friend that we hadn’t seen in a while.

He asked me what number pregnancy this was for us.

After I said,”number 5″, he immediately said, “that’s the number of Grace”.

I’m not sure why at that moment, but I knew that I wanted it to go with “Lulu”.

I know that even in the choosing of Lulu’s name, God was there.

And even now as I learn more about His grace, I am thankful for “my” Lulu Grace.

What everyday things do you see Him in?

Watering the Memory Garden

Boo and I went out to water the memory garden today.

She took a little water for herself, too.

The memory garden is the perfect place to quiet my mind.

I usually play the music from Lulu’s celebration service.

This is one of my favorites…

Thinking of you today, Lulu Grace.

 And thanking God for His Amazing Grace!

Birthday Weekend

We had such a difficult yet wonderful celebration for Lulu this past weekend.

Friday was a special day that we filled with new memories. We got to spend it with people who were with us when Lulu was born and even got to hear some of their memories of her. That was very special.

Saturday we blew our bubbles…

 

 

  

 and I made a strawberry pie – my first one… 

It was runny (we had to eat it with spoons) but it was delicious….

 

And something else that filled our hearts all weekend long were the cards, the visits, the emails, the texts, the phone calls,

the “thinking of you’s” – and the “praying for you’s”,

and the most helpful words to hear… the “she will not be forgotten’s”.

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

 

Happy 1st Birthday Lulu

From the moment we first saw you…

we were in love.

God today we say thank you. Thank you for showing us your strong love in the gifts you give us. Thank you for pouring out your peace in our most broken times. Thank you for your mercies, that are new every morning. Thank you for your grace that you give us freely. Thank you for being our God.  How good you are.

 

May the angels sing a bit louder today and the heavenly feast be just a bit sweeter – may heaven rejoice on Lulu’s 1st birthday, cause we definitely are rejoicing here!

Enjoy this song that we sang to Lulu while she was here in our arms.

{Lulu, you ARE sweeter than strawberry pie} 

Tomorrow…

WE ARE GOING TO CELEBRATE LULU!

Tomorrow morning we are going to take trays full of treats (that our family & friends have been baking & putting together for us) around to the hospital, my doctor’s office and her pediatrician’s office – all the places Lulu was cared for while she was here. And then tomorrow after the boys get home from school, we are going to cater a meal to Dayton Children’s NICU and the Home Health Care. We want to say thank you.

My friend Susan, that I met at the Respite Retreat back in February, and her family catered a meal to their local NICU for their daughter, Lily’s birthday. I love the idea of celebrating and saying “thank you” at the same time. I will be thinking of you, Susan & your beautiful little girl as we head back to our NICU for the first time since bringing Lulu home.

I made up some thank you cards, to tie to the trays, with a photo of Lulu & a big “L” cut out of scrapbook paper to tie to the front with ribbon. I wanted something that could say the thank you I feel in my heart, just in case I cannot get the words out of my mouth.

I am believing that it will be a WONDERFUL day. I will choose to see the JOY in it. I will look for God’s PEACE throughout the entire day.

She has the same birthday

Grief can be a very lonely place. A place that you can begin to look inward and say “why me”. A place that can make you feel sorry for yourself and stop looking around to those in need. And honestly, we have done that on more than one occasion. I began to see that in me and knew that was not something that I wanted to be a result of our precious gift we were given. I think it is in our human nature to be selfish and want things “our way”. So I knew one of the “gifts” I wanted to give back in memory of Lulu (since she was given to us, not to be selfish, but instead to be grateful) was to sponsor a little child who was in need.

We talked to the kiddos about it and we found a little girl who will be 9 years old on Friday – we found her because she shares her birthday with Lulu. Her name is Ana and she lives in the Dominican Republic. She enjoys playing house, with dolls, and group games.

The kiddos are excited to begin to write her and Boo has already colored several pictures to send to Ana.

It feels good to reach out to someone in need even in the midst of our pain.

There is a peace that lays heavily on us even when there is still pain in our hearts.

Family Photos

We’ve been planning our celebration for Lulu’s birthday. One way we are going to celebrate Lulu’s life each year is to have our family picture taken during her birthday week. The weekend after we got home from the NICU, Wes took family photos in our backyard. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were all together at home. We’ve wanted to do this as a family tradition for quite some time and think this will the perfect time to start.

Lulu’s Grace Race

We are working on our plans to celebrate Lulu’s birthday next week.

We’ve decided to wait on the race that we had originally planned on doing.

{This past summer was a lot harder for me than I imagined it would be.}

I still would like to have a race in honor of Lulu & to raise funds for the Trisomy Organization & Dayton Children’s, but that may be down the road a bit.

This year we’ve decided to have a different celebration for Lulu.

It almost feels like I’m planning a birthday party for her – and I like that feeling.

It will be a beautiful way for our family to remember her & I can’t wait to share more…

{This photo was taken 5 days after Lulu was born}

{Kelly had a photographer from “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep”  take family photos}

{She did an AMAZING job}