Sometimes things happen we can't explain. And sometimes they happen at just the right time. We think today is one of those days....
It is coming up on 4 years since Jayden was born & passed into Heaven not long after that. Having just come through the holidays (which are always emotional), we approach Valentine's Day (another emotional point) and immediately after that his birth date & angelversary.
After 4 years the pain is still deep. Perhaps it always will be. We busy ourselves with activities, responsibilities and distractions, but when it's quiet and it's just ourselves, the pain is still there. This last couple of weeks have seemed to reinforce that pain. It comes in waves, and lately those waves have seemed particularly high, so it seems just the time Alicia's "Lil' Man" would pull something that we feel is nothing other than miraculous!
Grandma had a particularly bad day yesterday (Thursday) and Alicia has been having a rough week with her ongoing medical issues, so by last night we were pretty wiped out, physically & emotionally. Grandma checked her email one more time before bed and found an email that changed everything. Back to that in a minute....
Last year we helped plan the CHERUBS 2nd annual Parade of Cherubs in Portland, Oregon at Legacy Emanuel / Randall Children's Hospital. During that time we met with other CDH families, held an Information Fair, and gathered with our Cherub survivors and fellow angel families, paraded around the hospital grounds to raise CDH awareness.
Here is the video of the event:
2nd Annual "Parade of Cherubs" in Portland, Oregon
April 19, 2013
If you watch in the last few frames, we "sent" balloons to our Cherubs who were lost to CDH. Each angel family like ours got their own balloon to label and the rest went to survivors to write on (although we can't remember if a couple of the survivors had to share putting their names on a balloon or two).
Here is a picture of the one Alicia did for Jayden...
Remember, this was April 19th, 2013... :-)
>>> Fast forward to last night (Thursday)...
The email that turned our frown into smiles, & kept it there all day today...
Grandma was very tired, but went to check her email 1 more time before bed. In her inbox was the usual, except for 1 item, a comment notification from YouTube on Jayden's memorial video from 3 years ago.
Shock, disbelief, amazement! Immediately grandma went to show it to Alicia & they were in shock together! WOW! Just WOW!!! Of COURSE Mommy would like it back!
Grandma couldn't reply on mobile & had to wait until morning, and as soon as were able to get online we replied, and were amazed again!
We'd pretty much figured out by then it had to be the balloon from the parade, but how far had it gone??? Neither had ever heard of Post, Oregon, so we had to look it up on the map... 174 miles (give or take) from Portland! There was a steady wind that day, so it likely hit an updraft pretty quickly & sailed on an upper air current.
We'd pretty much figured out by then it had to be the balloon from the parade, but how far had it gone??? Neither had ever heard of Post, Oregon, so we had to look it up on the map... 174 miles (give or take) from Portland! There was a steady wind that day, so it likely hit an updraft pretty quickly & sailed on an upper air current.
But the story doesn't end here. All this is transpiring on Jayden's great-grandpa's birthday. When we called to wish him Happy Birthday & told them the story they were amazed too!
And even more! Brent, Sandy's husband SHARES the same birth date as Jayden...and one of Sandy's children was born in the same hospital one of Alicia's siblings were in Billings, MT, many years before... Getting the shivers yet?!?
And even more! Brent, Sandy's husband SHARES the same birth date as Jayden...and one of Sandy's children was born in the same hospital one of Alicia's siblings were in Billings, MT, many years before... Getting the shivers yet?!?
#TwilghtZoneMusicPlays
We have set up a time & will bring the balloon home this weekend, and if all goes well, hopefully get to visit this weekend with 2 families at Randall who's babies are fighting the same battle Jayden fought so bravely almost 4 years ago... <3
Jayden, in a sense, is coming home to Mommy... :-)
Looking forward to the rest of the weekend!
(P.S.) If you are an Oregon or SW Washington CDH family and have suggestions for this year's CDH Awareness events for April, please let us know as we are meeting on Sunday with our fellow planners to firm things up.
If you are a CDH family in other areas & want to see what is going on in your area (and this is worldwide) keep checking back with CHERUBS!
CHERUBS Main page: http://www.cdhsupport.org
