Remembering & Rejoicing

I feel completely blessed.

Our family has, once again, been humbled by your love and support to us. We took a day away to be together as a family and remember our baby girl in her city, Charleston. I know that it may sound strange to some that we go there to "get away"...to the place where her hardest days were spent but to us it's where one of the greatest joys joined our family...and we became a family of four. It just so happened that two of our favorite nurses contacted me earlier in the week to let me know that they were getting low on Annabelle Baskets so we delivered another batch first stop. We took 18 special edition Easter baskets! A VERY special thanks to Dana from Florida & Gale from Simpsonville for all the special Easter goodies! We have so much that we had to take two loads & will be taking more in a couple of weeks when I have the new baby's echo done there! It set the tone for our trip & gave us a tremendous reason to REJOICE! Annabelle's life continues to impact others & bring everyone involved in her amazing ministry such joy & hope! This brings to mind another very special Annabelle Basket opportunity that we are working on...I will be making an announcement soon!

This special bunny was delivered to a very special little girl, Addi, who has spent over 100 days at MUSC. She will be going home this week! (We had to take it to her early with hopes that she will be home when we go back!) Oh & don't you just LOVE the heart hairbow??? I precious blog friend, Danielle, had this one & many more made just for the heart baby girls! They are adorable!

After making our special delivery, we headed to Shem Creek for a yummy seafood dinner! Another blog friend & Annabelle Basket donor, Erica, hooked us up with a great hotel rate through her best friend (so we were able to spend more on fun family things!). We had a very slow Friday morning...remembering the precious moments we shared with Annabelle one year ago. It was nice to be in a different place completely secluded as a family. We were able to talk and pray together all morning. Once we did get going, we had no official plans & Wyatt talked us into going to the SC Aquarium. It was one of his favorite places to visit when we were at the hospital last year with Annabelle but neither Scott nor I ever got to go with him. My daddy & my Aunt Brenda had taken him last year so he was ready to show us all the sea creatures he remembered. We had a great visit after checking out every single exhibit there & decided to head to East Bay Street for lunch!

On our way home, we stopped by Annabelle's special place to change her hairbow...she needed her baseball bow on for Wyatt's first teeball game today (that ended up getting rained out). Annabelle had arranged to have an angel deliver a letter to us from her and it was there waiting for us. Scott and I couldn't even see it at certain times because the tears were so thick in our eyes. We don't know who our baby girl chose to give us such a special letter but we know through the words that the precious spirit that shared it with us knows our's and our daughter's heart intimately. We will always cherish it.

We were welcomed home with a delicious meal on the doorstep that was totally unexpected but perfect as I didn't even have milk in the fridge (thank you, Mandy...you meet needs that we don't even know we have) & gifts at the door from friends all over the US! I think the mail lady and FedEx guy made a few stops while we were gone. The mailbox was full of letters of love & our answering machine was blinking like crazy! We have felt your love and are humbled that you think so much of our family to do the gracious acts of kindness that you have. Your love has touched us this week & reminded us that our girl is still making an impact! We cannot thank you enough!