Walk of Remembrance and Running with Angels 2015

Every May we have a couple events we participate in that help us honor and remember our sweet angel baby, Nastassia.

I know Mother's Day can be hard for many women. Trust me. I've been there.

At this point in my life, after going through some pretty hard times, I feel very fortunate to have had positive experiences in the midst of difficult trials and I can honestly say now that I look forward to the month of May every year, especially when Nastassia Day comes in April and it's kind of hard to get through every year.  Sometimes I still have to take a deep breath and wait for the moment of grief to pass.  Sometimes it hits me at random times when I'm least expecting it.  We will always miss our little Nastassia and it makes us sad that we'll never have the chance to raise her here upon the earth.  Someday though, we know we'll have that chance in the eternities. But, it can be hard to keep that eternal perspective and to be patient.

It's healing for me when our family participates in our annual Walk of Remembrance with other families who have lost babies too, and then the next weekend we go run with many of the same families in the Running with Angels 5k.

May 9th - Walk of Remembrance

The Walk of Remembrance is always the Saturday before Mother's Day.  I'm glad they hold it then.  It helps me look forward to Mother's Day with a smile on my face and not so much grief in my heart.  It was a cold, rainy day this year, but we didn't really care.  We were just happy to be together to celebrate Nastassia!

Our family with our traditional yellow balloon to be released in honor of our angel baby.

Releasing the balloon.

I love that they take time to read the names of all the babies of the families in attendance and have a moment of silence.  It's always very touching.

It was raining so hard that the weight of the raindrops made it hard for the balloons to float up.  As we were leaving we noticed several balloons on the ground that hadn't even made it out of the parking lot!  Darwin jumped out of the car and grabbed a couple balloons for the girls to have--especially because Savannah was so sad that we sent her balloon up into the sky.  She was a happy girl again when she got her balloon back :)

May 16th - Running with Angels
The Saturday after Mother's Day is when we join other families for Running with Angels.  This is my most favorite 5k that we do together.  It's amazing to feel the strength and support of so many families who have gone through similar, or harder, experiences of losing a child than we have.  I'm glad the girls are beginning to look forward to this also as they get older and are starting to understand more.  It was a chilly morning the morning of our run also, and we were worried it would rain on us again, but it didn't!  We still bundled the girls up anyway.


My friend, Lonny, volunteers for the run every year.  We always look forward to see her!  Thanks for taking a picture of our family, Lonny!
 
Ready to run!

Just before the run, they do a dove release.  We ended up right next to the families and the doves this year.  It was fun to be so close!


The doves usually fly around the crowd a couple times before taking off, but this year they flew around the crowd for several minutes before flying away.  It was special and neat to watch.


May 10th - Mother's Day
In between the two events was Mother's Day.  Darwin made delicious blueberry pancakes for breakfast and gave me a few gifts I've really been wanting. He always treats me too well :)  That's why I keep him around though. Haha! He's amazing and I wouldn't be the mom I am if it weren't for him!

I wanted to get a picture of me and the girls but they were not at all cooperative.  I should have just joined them in making funny faces.  Silly me. Oh, well!

My and my Rori-girl

Me and my Sweet Savannah Belle.  She was still being a stinker in a picture by herself, but it's all good :)

I love these two little ladies who call me "Mommy".  They sure are sweet spirits and I'm so very blessed to have them!!

Happy Mother's Day to all those special women in my life who have set such great examples for me and taught me so much throughout my life.  I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for so many amazing women, most especially my own mom.  I love and appreciate her more and more as I get older and go through the experience of motherhood myself.  Thank you, Mom, for all of your love and sacrifice.  I hope you know how much you mean to me!  I love you!