5.30.09

We lovingly called this day "Jon's Day". This is the day the doctor's said he would come into this world. Little did any of us know that he would not come like "we" thought he was supposed to, but instead came the way God knew he was supposed to.

I knew the day was going to be difficult, but I wanted to make it a day of celebration. Celebration of what his life would have been. Celebration for what he had taught us.

We started the day out by planting a tree in our backyard in his memory. We made a little sitting area with the bench my husband had gotten me a few weeks before for Mother's Day, and each of the kids added something special from them. Sierra put out a cement plaque that had her handprint from a few years before, Savannah put out some of her favorite rocks from her rock collection, and Chance and Tickle (our cat) put out a plaster plaque with their foot prints. We had a plaque made with Jon's name and date of birth. All of the things are on the ground in front of the bench that is in front of the tree. It overlooks the playground we have in our backyard so it feels like he's out there with us, watching us, while we're playing.

After we planted the tree, we each tied a message onto a balloon and released them next to his tree. We had 6 baby blue balloons (one for each of us) and 1 bigger white heart balloon all for Jon. We hope they made their way up to him in Heaven. Next we had birthday cake for him and put on our bracelets that we had made with his name and date of birth.

The last thing we did to honor that day was looked at everything in his 'old' memory box and put it in his 'new' memory box. It feels good that he now has a nicer, permanent home. We were grateful for the memory box we got from the hospital, but the one we got from Megan at Greatest Blessings is so much nicer and more personal.

We love and miss you baby boy! You will forever be in our hearts.

Jon Aaron Brudvig
December 10, 2008
Expected Date of Birth
May 30, 2009