My Dearest and Best: May 2011

Tuesday would be Isaac's 2nd birthday. Oh, how we continue to miss him each and every day!

One day last week, I found on the coffee table a note Kiddo had written to his little brother. It reads:

"Isaac
"Happy Birthday uh day
uh I do have uh one more thing I
wanted to say
I love you Isaac
I do say I love you Isaac"

(You can tell that Kiddo thinks it's pretty cool to add "uh" to his notes!)

And today he told me he wants to make a card for Isaac, with my stamps and ink. It is amazing to me how connected to Isaac he is. Not a day goes by without Kiddo talking about his little brother at some point. He likes to make up stories about himself being a detective, and Isaac is always his sidekick. Kiddo is really looking forward to Isaac being resurrected someday, and really hopes it will be soon. It certainly does seem like a long time until that day, though.

I hope that Kiddo will always remember Isaac. I'm not sure how much will fade from his memory as he grows up. So far, he remembers a lot about Isaac, and he loves to look at his pictures and watch videos of him. I know that Daddy-O and I will do our best to keep Isaac's memory alive each day and remind Kiddo how much Isaac loved him and continues to love him.

If you've been reading this blog for at least a year, you'll probably remember that we chose to devote his birthday last year to service. It was a blessing to us to spend his special day trying to share the joy he brought us. It helped to comfort us in our time of deep and intense mourning. So we've decided to make it our annual tradition. This year, with a new baby, we probably will have to choose fewer or smaller acts than last year and hope to go all out next year. Again, we're hoping that our friends and family will join us in sharing some of his brightness and happiness with others by performing some acts of kindness to others. I think I can promise you that if you do, you will be blessed, too, as you bring smiles to someone else.

If you join us in serving someone on Tuesday-- or any other day this week, if you don't see this until later-- I hope you'll please share with me what you've done. I want to compile these acts and put them in a book that I will add to each year. Isaac's life on earth may be short, but it certainly mattered, and I hope his sweet and loving influence will continue to be felt at least as long as I live. Being his mother has been one of the greatest privileges of my life, one I will thank God for as long as I have breath.