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Thank you to everyone who was a part of this year's Butterfly Release and Summer Remembrance event on June 26th!  Here are some photos that we captured that morning.

Hundreds of these beautiful Monarch butterflies were released during our memorial as we remembered so many children who are no longer with us.

Memorial programs have been mailed this week those of you who could not attend.  If you do not receive your program in the next week, please let us know .

If you have pictures you would like to add to our gallery, please email them to us! (Please resize them to 800x600 max size.)

A wise gardener once told me that if you want a beautiful garden to grow you must weed it from time to time. Weeding for any gardener, whether it’s a small flower pot on the front porch or a gorgeous flower garden in the backyard is an assumed task and occasionally just has to be done. However, if you neglect to prune the weeds they will eventually begin to overcrowd or, worse yet, become invasive and try and take over your entire garden.

After the death of my son, I began to apply this same logic to my own life.

Do you know me?  I used to be so cheerful, the proud owner of an easy smile.  I was optimistic and upbeat; pointing out the silver lining behind each of the dark and looming clouds.  I was walking across the bridge into motherhood, and felt full of dreams for this baby that was growing inside me, our baby, my baby.

Do you remember me?  I used to love going out with my friends, chatting on the phone, hanging out doing nothing, dishing over the gossip columns.  I was the one who laughed the hardest when we saw that show together.  I was the one who would spend hours shopping with you to find that perfect dress for your special event. 

I was the one.  I was.

Reflecting on life after loss.

Although I have experienced the loss of several people who were close to me, it is the loss of my daughter that marks the most dramatic pivot-point of change in my life. This is not to say that my days are consumed by my grief and the loss of Rowan. They certainly used to be, but they are not anymore.

Here it comes, the dreaded anniversary. You may be wondering, "How will I deal with it? If the stress today is this bad, how horrible will I feel on the actual date?"

"Life changes fast.
Life changes in the instant.
You sit down to dinner
and life as you know it ends."

While at a Mary Kay Cosmetics party, I was guided to my seat along the dining room table and prepared myself to be made over by a woman whose acquaintance I had yet to make. I didn't mind being here, really, although it was tiring listening to her stale sales pitch drone on, feeling a little trapped among fourteen of my family and friends. And yet to my chagrin, I see the long list of items on the form next to me; items that I have enjoyed during my little make-over session. It is a list I intend to purchase.