Just a quick note to let you know we got through Alexa’s birthday really good!  Thank you to all of you who were praying for us and thinking of us.  Thanks for the notes on our caringbridge guestbook, facebook,  emails, phone messages, texts, etc.  We sure felt all of you “lifting us up” and it felt like a huge hug from God.  Yes we were a bit sad. Chris and I took an early walk in our neighborhood together  before he had to leave for work.  It was a beautiful morning and we had a nice time talking and reflecting on the life we had lived as parents to Alexa.  Yes, we miss her and would love to have her back to hug, hold, love on and kiss…….but we wouldn’t want her back in the condition she was in when she left this earth.  We both agreed we want her back healthy like she was when she was about 8 or 9 years old before all the oxygen and pain.  I was able to meet Chris for lunch in between his calls and we had a delicious juicy (greasy) cheeseburger from Five Guys.  Alexa loved her cheeseburgers! 

Later that day our family came over and they gave us a tree to plant in our backyard to always remember Alexa.  It was a pink dogwood and should always bloom on her birthday.  We will always be able to look at the pink blossoms and remember our sweet child.  We got pink and purple balloons and we all wrote on them with markers some special notes to Alexa. This was Jenna’s suggestion.  We then let them go and watched them fly away in the sky until we could no longer see them.  Jenna, in her wisdom, said “Mama, I know they won’t go all the way to sissy in heaven, but I believe somehow she will see them and know we love her and we thought of her on her birthday.”  She then started to cry and we all experienced a sense of sorrow yet joy.  It was an absolutely beautiful day in Georgia.

After our family left, we had Jenna’s soccer practice to go to.  After practice we went straight to our local Mexican restaurant where Alexa has gone many years on her birthday to celebrate.  She always loved wearing the Mexican hat (sombrero) and being sung to in Spanish.  We had visions of all the times we were here as a family in the past and remembered Alexa even last April 23rd.  I have to tell you that while we ate at the restaurant it must have poured down rain along with some thunder and hail.  When we finished eating, we looked out the window and saw how dark the sky looked on one side of the parking lot and how light it was behind the building.   We noticed the rain had let up so as we left to get to our car we stopped in mid-stride as we all looked at the sky in front of us at the same time.  It was the most magnificent rainbow we had seen together as a family.  It felt as if God and Alexa were showing us that she was happy….that she was safe…..that  she was whole and complete and as perfect as the rainbow in front of us with all of its bright colors.  It really was the end to a memorable day.  I will never forget that rainbow. 

Blessings to all of you…..may love and joy surround you as it has to us this day.

Robin, Chris and Jenna

“Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you and promise you that if you would believe and rely on Me, you would see the glory of God?”  ~John 11:40

“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.