The 2014 Families are Forever Day Recap

Logan and James headed out to play soccer with a bunch of friends bright an early.  Once they got home we had a yummy omelet brunch and headed to the Raleigh North Carolina LDS Temple. 

Katie was thrilled to see flowers growing even though it's February!  It was such a fun surprise that went perfectly with the balloon she chose for Luke. Just another miracle! 

While we walked around the temple grounds, we talked about how grateful we are that our family has been sealed for eternity, because we can have joy and peace knowing Luke is part of our family and will be ours forever.  I actually made it through the entire day without crying- we were just grateful for our family, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the blessing it is to believe as we do.  

 Such good friends!

 Tyler's choice for Luke was all sports this year.

 Logan knew he wanted the gold star as soon as he saw it.

 James chose this Spider-Man balloon because he's a super hero and Luke LOVES Super Heroes!
I picked the frog because Luke LOVES to jump...and I love him.  :-)

 Here they go!  I love the joy on everyone's faces!  It's been a lot of years to get to this point of gratitude and joy, and it is wonderful to see how the Lord continues to heal us as we turn our pain and suffering to Him.

 The 'Balloon Race.'

 Katie running to watch the balloons go higher.

Almost there!

 After sending our balloons to Luke, we had an awesome lunch at Cheesecake Factory and then went to see the new Lego movie.  The theme song was "Everything is Awesome!"  And as you can see from this picture, that's exactly the theme of today.  It was awesome...or "epic" as Tyler loves to say!

 Thanks to each of you for the many well-wishes and kind words, the sweet "I hugged my babies" messages, and the prayers lifted to heaven in our behalf.   They mean so much- we are truly blessed.

 If you are missing someone dear to you, I hope you'll celebrate with us each February 8- the perfect day to remember that we only have "to wait" (February = 2, 8th = 8) and we will be reunited again. Big hugs!!

Families are Forever!

February 8 is our Families Are Forever Day.  Our oldest son (by 9 minutes- he's a twin) passed away Feb 8, 2006.  We decided to embrace the day each year and celebrate that our family will one day be together again.  What's amazing is that each and every year an extra little miracle (or two, or three) shows up reconfirming that our Father in Heaven is indeed guiding my life, and that it's going the way He wants it to.  This year was a treasure!  I was able to download a number of old videos that I haven't seen in years, due to a broken camera.  A dear friend offered to loan me hers, and the quest began.  I watched my babies grow up- babies, one year old, two, and then I got a tad nervous, but also excited.  Luke died a few months before he turned 3.  When I watched the videos of Christmas just before I began to wonder what the last video I had of Luke would be.  Would it stop after Christmas?  Would there be a little something extra?  Would there be some adorable clip I had forgotten about that summed up his life?  I didn't know, but I really hoped for it to be something that would perfectly sum up his life- or something to remind me that he was ok.  What a treat when this is what I found. I'll write more about it AFTER our special day, because we're on our way to celebrate, but for now, enjoy the video!   (It's clipped by me so it would fit into blogger, but you can get the gist.)     Hug your babies!!!

**Ok, I just watched to make sure it worked, and there's no sound!  AAH!  I'll work on it this evening, but for now, here's the scoop:  Luke is showing off his belt and tie, he says, 'cheese!', and then as he runs away, he says, 'Bye!'  Can you believe that his last video is of him saying goodbye as he takes off while dressed for church?!  *happy tears*