Blessed

It continues to amaze me how much our monster is loved!  Today has not been an easy day.  Even when Henry was tiny, Tim and I had started picturing his first birthday party.  Of course, nothing was actually planned, but it was fun to think about.  What would the theme be?  Who would be invited?  Where would we have it?  What would Henry think?  We knew that first birthdays are mostly for the adults...the one-year-olds don't really know what's going on, but we enjoyed thinking about it.

We did not envision a first birthday quite like this.  A first birthday without the guest of honor.  A first birthday celebrated at the cemetery rather than in our home.  A first birthday without a gathering of family and friends in one physical place.  A first birthday with many many sad tears, rather than happy tears.  A first birthday where mom and dad took a nap because they were emotionally exhausted, instead of making sure the birthday boy got a nap so he didn't get too cranky.

Despite all of this, though, there is good in today.  We may not have had family and friends gather together physically, but we had family and friends gather together in spirit, and through social media, to celebrate one special little boy.  Orange balloons were released across the country, random acts of kindness happened, all because of Henry.  People are reminded that life is precious, to love on those babies (no matter how old they are!) and to enjoy the little things.  Teachers in many schools wore orange, released balloons, and had a birthday party for Henry.  Grandpa brought the celebration to Nana, even though she's having the fun up in Heaven with Henry!

Of course, I would give just about anything to have Henry here to enjoy the celebrations with us.  My heart physically hurts today, but I know that Henry is having a huge birthday party in Heaven with Nana and Brady.  It doesn't take away the ache, but it does ease the pain just a little.

We are working on compiling a video of all of the celebrations in honor of Henry (which we will share as soon as it is finished) - we have received so many pictures, videos, and messages in support of our family and in honor of Henry.  And because of this, we are truly blessed.  Thank you all for making an extremely difficult day a bit more bearable.  <3