Angel balloon releases

In the Trisomy world, I have observed that balloon releases are a popular memory celebration.  I love the idea of sending balloons up to our little angels in heaven.  We plan on sending up balloons to Lilly on what would have been her 2nd birthday, July 4.  I'm thinking she should have a regular birthday balloon along with an Independence Day themed balloon!

The Chamberlin family had this balloon release (today's pictures)  this past Monday at their celebration to remember their sweet angel girl Jordan, who was born with Trisomy 18.  Jordan lived from June 4 - 7, 2009.  Her short life was only 3 days long.  But even three years later, her impact can still be seen on her family.  And it will always be so!  No matter how short of time we have our children, they are in our hearts and mind forever. 

The Chamberlin's balloon release was recorded by their local television station.  Here the link to the news video (it is now on YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWB8146f90E&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I love how Jordan's mama emphasized that it is OK for people to talk to us about our angel children.  They are part of our families and always will be!

Jordan's family not only released a balloon for her, but for 53 of her angel friends.  Included was our Lilly with this pink balloon and name tag.  :)

I am so grateful for all the help and support within the Trisomy 18/13 community we families, especially mama's, have for each other.  It is a definitely blessing of the internet that we have found each other.

Finally I wanted to share a photo of little Jordan. Isn't she such a sweet tiny little thing? I love the matching bracelets she and her mama are wearing.

 

Jordan reminds me of newborn Lilly.  I think I will always be amazed at how much Trisomy 18 babies resemble each other.  Yes you can see a lot of their family in them, but you can also see Trisomy 18.  My son has been sitting in my lap as I type this blog, and when I loaded this picture of Jordan, he exclaimed, "Hey that's Lilly!"  He seems the similarities too.  :)

I know much of the world does not see it this way, but I love how these Bible verses show that God did not make a mistake when he created Trisomy children:
 
"¹³For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book    before one of them came to be." - Psalm 139:13-16

An amazing new billboard

One of the very first Trisomy mom's I ever talked to was J., the mama of Giuliana who was born exactly one month after Lilly.  Giuliana has been through a lot but is really doing very well overall.  Testing showed that she does not have full Trisomy 18 like Lilly did.  (Full Trisomy 18 means three copies of the 18th chromosome in each cell in the body, instead of the normal two copies.)  Giuliana has mosaic Trisomy 18 which means she has an extra copy of chromosome 18 in only some of her body's cells.

Giuliana has had heart repair surgery and many other of the same problems as children with full Trisomy 18.  But one big difference is, she can physically do so much more.  I'm sure that is due to being "mosaic."  But even with being mosaic, she is still a little miracle!

Giuliana will celebrate her 2nd birthday on August 4.  The celebration is beginning early with the posting of three billboards in high traffic areas of her city.  You can read more about Giuliana and the billboards on  J's blogpost.  I so appreciate J.'s advocating so hard for our special Trisomy kids!

T. and I are continuing to have fun learning how to use the My Memories digital scrapbooking software.  I made this page, using a discovery that T. made yesterday.  There are a lot of "effects" you can use to change the look of photos.  All of these photos were originally in color.  I changed the top one to "red."  The bottom left to "sepia" and the bottom right to "black and white."  I did this scrapbooking page in maybe 10 minutes, as that was all the time I had for it this morning.

T. quickly whipped out several pages too, and those are posted below.  You'll notice similarities in the background paper.  They were part of a six page designer template.

Don't forget to enter!  The My Memories Suite free software giveaway ends this Friday at 6:00 p.m.!  You can find out how to enter and see all the details in my review here.  It has been a lot of fun reading the entries that have come in, mostly by e-mail.  I can't wait to see who the winner will be!

I am having a good week!  My new Lilly with Jesus picture helps me so much.  :)

"Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!" - Psalm 105:1-2

Lilly's memorial tree - June

Don't forget about my My Memories digital scrapbooking software contest - it ends this Friday evening.  And just to clarify (there was at least one confused person) - you do NOT have to buy anything to enter. 

Yesterday was June 4, so in honor of what would have been Lilly's 23 month birthday, we decorated her memorial tree with our June theme - birds and nests with eggs.

It didn't turn out as colorful as last month, which may be my favorite so far, but it is sweet.  Another problem may be that all the pre-lit lights in the middle of the tree have gone out.  That was very disappointing.  This is my first experience with a pre-lit tree and I was under the impression that if one light went out, it would not affect the rest of the lights.  I think it's still under warranty, but I certainly do not want to get a new tree.  I bought this tree for Lilly for Christmas last December, shortly before she passed away, so it is special.  I just need to find a short string of regular lights to wind around the middle. 

We really do enjoy our tradition of changing the ornaments each month.  I save each month's ornaments in small plastic tote bins and store them in the attic.  We will rotate through them all again next year.

Here is a closeup of some of the bird ornaments.  T. made pom pom birds:

H. made a paper woodpecker (his favorite kind of bird) and insisted it have a red, white, and blue ribbon to hang by:

I have a Dover publication that has Victorian bird images on CD and used that to print these birds.  I then embellished with glitter:

Artificial birds I bought off Ebay:



The tree:

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" - Matthew 6:26

My new beautiful picture of Lilly in Jesus' arms

What a wonderful day! Today I received the most amazing birthday present from my husband.  Ever since Lilly died, I have wanted a picture done of Jesus holding Lilly.   And today I received the one pictured here.  Isn't it just so beautiful?  And it looks just like Lilly!  (See photo below.)  Lilly's smile is so trusting and delighted.  And Jesus so calm, strong, and peaceful.

When he showed me the picture I just started crying.  But it was happy tears.  He had hired a former art teacher from the private school he works at to do the drawing.  The picture is very large and was done in pastels.  I'm going to have it matted and framed.  And we're going to receive prints from it.  I want to get greeting cards made too.

I hate that Lilly is not in my arms anymore.  But I could not ask for anything better than for her to held by and cared by Jesus.  I'll hold you one day again little girl!

After Lilly died, we received several cards with the lyrics to the hymn "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" by Fanny Crosby.  I had never actually heard this hymn before.  The title of the hymn is the perfect title for the Lilly and Jesus drawing.

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’ershaded, sweetly my soul shall rest.
Hark! ’tis the voice of angels, borne in a song to me.
Over the fields of glory, over the jasper sea.

Refrain

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast
There by His love o’ershaded, sweetly my soul shall rest.

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe from corroding care,
Safe from the world’s temptations, sin cannot harm me there.
Free from the blight of sorrow, free from my doubts and fears;
Only a few more trials, only a few more tears!

Refrain

Jesus, my heart’s dear Refuge, Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages, ever my trust shall be.
Here let me wait with patience, wait till the night is over;
Wait till I see the morning break on the golden shore.

Refrain

The artist of the Lilly and Jesus picture told my husband that she felt she really got to know Lilly by doing the drawing.  That was beautiful to hear.  :)  I hope to meet her soon and learn more in person.

T's digital scrapbooking page

Today my daughter T. got to try out the My Memories Suite software that I received for free to review.  This is picture is of the first digital scrapbooking page she created.  She is 10-almost-11 years old and needed very little help on moving around in the scrapbooking program.  She even taught me something - how to add "imprints."  (The purple scroll looking things next to the picture of her and Lilly.)  This digital scrapbook page took her less than 15 minutes for everything.  (Like me - the hardest part was choosing the photo!)

Then a bit later, she got back on the program and whipped out three more great scrapbooking pages in a short amount of time.  These really are so easy to make!

Our 3 year old H. likes to be creative too.  Yesterday he said he wanted to "cut and glue" a picture of Lilly.  I wasn't really sure what he meant but he cut out a strip of paper and said it was Lilly's body, then glued it to another piece of paper.  Then he drew Lilly's body, added googly eyes and a pom pom nose, and ladybugs for Lilly to hold.  He was so pleased with his picture.  I thought it was cute in a whimsical sort of way.  I'm so glad he drew Lilly smiling.

The children of the Kwant family also love to do projects to remember their baby sister Hannah, who lived 64 days with Trisomy 18.  Their two latest posts showing memory projects are here and here.  T. and I always enjoy looking at the Kwant's latest projects and getting ideas.  (Big sister C. has an Etsy store where she sells things she makes in memory of Hannah.  You can click there through the sidebar on the right of this blog.  You can also check out her blog of items she is making here - I admit I am partial to her latest post - on lily hair flowers!)

Don't forget!  The My Memories Suite free software contest ends in one week!  Get all the details about how to enter on my last blog post or here.  And thank you to everyone that has entered!  We've been enjoying your comments and emails!

My Memories Suite free software giveaway (Digital Scrapbooking)

If you've read this blog at all much, since Lilly went to be with Jesus 5 months ago, you know that we have done a lot of memory projects about Lilly.  And we don't seem to be running short of ideas either!  Memory projects are, for us, a way of working through grief, helping to heal, and keeping Lilly's memory alive.

Recently I was contacted by a woman named Liz from My Memories.  (Think digital scrapbooking.)  She had come across Lilly's blog and said she really liked it.  She wondered if I would like a free copy of the My Memories Suite software program to try myself, and one to give away.  My first thought was "LOL - I've arrived as a blogger!  A stranger has contacted me for a giveaway!"  Then I was a little suspicious.  But I did a google search and found that Liz has done this deal with a number of other bloggers and it seemed to go very well.  Then I read the reviews of the My Memories Suite software on amazon.com and found that they were all very positive.  So I agreed to give it a try.

Let me first say that I love the idea of scrapbooking. And at the same time I find it completely overwhelming!  Shortly after Lilly was born, my nephew's wife L.S. gave me a scrapbook for Lilly where she pre-made a bunch of pages and had them all ready for me to just add pictures.  I loved it.  And because I was so busy caring for Lilly, that was all I could handle.  During Lilly's life, I collected scrapbook pages I liked here and there and have just saved them.  Then our local scrapbook store shut down recently and I got a stack of paper and embellishments for pennies.  I even bought a couple scrapbooking idea/technique books at used book sales.  (Yes I like to research everything!)

So why haven't I completed my amazing Lilly scrapbook yet?  Pictures!  I have 1000s of pictures!  And I had them developed in big batches and they came back to me all out of order.  I am STILL sorting them out when I have time.  (There are times I enjoy going through them and other times it's just too upsetting, so it's hard to make steady progress.)  Since I have so many supplies, I am determined to finish the scrapbook, Lord willing, before our rainbow baby's birth in September.  But it's still overwhelming.

However, after I downloaded the My Memories Suite I was able to crank out several experimental pages in a short amount of time.  It was so easy and fun!  I got to just paste in pictures, which were all on my computer already (and importantantly - IN ORDER!)  No searching to find them. 

On the software, when you make a page, you can select from a "designer template" or make your own from scratch.  Here are two I did with the pre-designed format, adding photos, text, and embellishments:

It only took me about 15 minutes per page, and the majority of that time was in just selecting which pictures I wanted to use.  The software program is truly so easy to use, I was able to figure everything out without clicking on "help."

I also made a scrapbook page where I just started from scratch.  It too was very very simple.

I'm not an expert on page layout and design.  But I was still pleased with how the page turned out.

So what do you do, once you create a whole scrapbook?  You can upload it to the My Memories website and select a cover and have it printed.  I thought the cost was very reasonable.  I am by no means a scrapbook expert but I've observed just how expensive all the stickers and special papers and other embellishments can be.  Making a scrapbook digital can be much much cheaper.

The My Memories Suite does more than just digital scrapbook pages.  You can also create calendars.  Here is one I made in minutes:

I read somewhere that you can make greeting cards too.  I haven't figured that one out yet.  I am wondering if perhaps that function is not on the version of the software I have.  Or maybe it is done directly on their website.  And, there is a function to add music, but I did not try that one.

So!  If you've read this far I know I must have your interest!  How about it?  Want to take part of a little contest to see if you can win this simple, fun, and powerful software?  (Great soundbite, huh?)  Here is what you need to do:

1) Visit the My Memories website at:  www.MyMemories.com and pick a digital paper pack or layout that you really like.  Then leave a comment on this blog, or e-mail me at LittleFirecrackerLilly (at) gmail.com, telling me what you chose.  (If you choose to leave a comment rather than e-mail me, please be sure you leave a way I can contact you if you win.)

2) For a double chance at winning, also share with me a favorite memory of Lilly that you have, or a blog post you liked, or a picture of her you really like.  :)

This contest will END on Friday, JUNE 8th, at 6:00 p.m. (EST).  I will take everyone's names and put them in a jar for a drawing.  (Remember - if you do steps one and two above - you get TWO entries!)

If you don't win, or if you would like to just buy the My Memories Suite software, you can get a $10.00 discount on your purchase, plus a $10 coupon for the www.MyMemories.com store, by using this discount code at your checkout:

STMMMS89191

Note that you can instantly download the software after purchase, or have the software shipped to you.  On that same page, you can also click to download a free trial. 

Feel free to share this contest with your friends, family, or anyone you feel would be interested.  I look forward to hearing from you!  :)

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." - James 1:17

All that Red White & Blue

Photo: This patriotic rabbit is one of my favorite decorations at my in-laws river house.  Our son calls it a "Lilly colored bunny."

My family has enjoyed all the extra red-white-and- blue everywhere this weekend, in honor of Memorial Day.  Of course we know it is to honor veterans and we are very grateful for them.  But it sure honored our Little Firecracker in our minds too.

Just a note here about colors.  Obviously we associate red,white, and blue with our Lilly because she was born on Independence Day.  Another Trisomy angel mom recently shared with me that she loved the color green and often bought things she needed/wanted in green if they were available.  Green is the color for the month which her angel baby was born.  And so, it has become a color that just makes her feel closer to her daughter.  (You can see birthstone colors by month here.)  It's sort of funny how simple things like this can help in healing.

We were able to make a brief stop at Lilly's grave yesterday.  Much to my huge disappointment, I realized a few moments ago that I managed to delete the photos I took without loading them!  :(  But the cemetery looked nice. All along the edges it was lined in little American flags.  Lilly's had her angel wings for 5.5 months now yet as we left I still found myself shaking my head and thinking "I can't believe I've buried a child."

In honor of all the red-white-and-blue ("Lilly colors") below are a couple more pictures from the last week or so.

I've been wanting to buy or make a tree skirt for Lilly's memory tree but couldn't decide on just what or how.  Then I found this star table runner and I decided it would be perfect.  For now anyway.  It has four cloth stars and they button together.  I unbuttoned them and just laid each around the base of her tree.  It looks quite nice.

I found these pretty red, white, and blue bottles and thought they would be just right under Lilly's framed collage which hangs over our kitchen table.  I want to try and keep flowers in them year round. Thankfully our butterfly garden is bursting with flowers right now. 

T. painted this flower pot:

I bought this outfit for our rainbow baby.  T. talked me into it.  It is the first thing I've bought for him.  I felt completely numb about it.  But after a few days I started thinking it might be fun to bring him home after his birth dressed in it.  Also, I am happy to share that I have finally started to bond some to this baby.  What changed?  Well I think confessing my lack of bonding out loud to my midwife and then sharing on this blog and getting some helpful feedback, then going through with buying the below outfit, and then going to our state's homeschool conference last Friday and seeing lots of babies strapped on their mamas in baby carriers, have all helped.  And maybe people have been praying for me too?  But I do know my feelings have begun changing and that is a relief.

H. is wearing his "Lilly colored outfit."  He always likes wearing it because he says it "makes him think of Lilly."  He seems to be worrying lately about forgetting her.  H. is happily standing before a display of old cars, including a toy milk truck. (He has a thing for old milk trucks and even bought one off Ebay with his own money.)  This picture was taken at the Pantego Academy, located in Pantego, North Carolina.  (If you're ever in the eastern part of the state - or not! - you should really visit here.  It is such a fascinating museum!  My mother-in-law helps with it so we got a special tour yesterday after helping her carry in some things she was bringing for displays.



I am so thankful for the array of colors God has created, and for memories.

"At all times and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." - Ephesians 5:20