Capture Your Grief Part II

I find this much more comforting than "God only gives you what you can handle." Photo by Kelly Bakke/Kix Photography.

Beautiful ring that I won from Nelle & Lizzy! Thank you to everyone that helped me win it. It is one of few pieces of jewelry that has both of my boys.

The skate park in Milltown that was dedicated the day after his 1st birthday. It's hard to believe that he would be almost 4 years old and wanting to play on this park by now.

Water, but especially rivers and waterfalls.
This was taken in September 2012 from my phone on my camera while looking through binoculars!

These are the people in-real-life that have been so supportive. This is our group at the Rocket Club event that we had in April 2012. My parents, siblings, in-laws and husband have pulled me through. There are a few friends that have been there since before River died but not too many. Photo by Kix Photography.

Anything from River's garden. There are not many scents from when he was alive that stick with me but the flowers in his garden provide such comfort.

Deer. Strange but everything we do that has any sort of significance deer show up. This picture was taken in Superior, WI in September two deer swam across the bay of Lake Superior. Honest to goodness I did not know that deer swam!

These are just a few of the BLM's that I have had a chance to meet. Tiffany, Jenna and Natasha. Our photographer was Kristin. I could not get up every day if it weren't for ladies like these. There are so many more that I hope to meet someday!

Our beautiful River candle. We have so many that were given to us as gifts but this is the only one that I made. It's going on 3 years strong.

This was River's 3rd Birthday. We always get cake. We always release balloons. This year, Asher said, "Happy birthday River" when we left. Broke my heart that he will never really know his big brother.

This is the latest family photo with our River Bear. This was done in April, between rainbow babe's 2nd and River's 3rd birthdays...wishing they were both here to be in a family picture. Photo by Kix Photography.

Our project is River's Rally (www.riversrally.org). This picture was taken at the second annual event. We do a few different fundraisers throughout the year but this is the biggest one. It is always the 1st Saturday in May - falling between his birthday and remembrance day. Photo by Kix Photography.

Our project is River's Rally (www.riversrally.org). Charity - There are so many! Probably two that I spend most of my time working on or with (aside from River's Rally) are Faith's Lodge and The Compassionate Friends. This is a wall stone that will be placed inside the entryway at Faith's Lodge. I volunteer with Faces of Loss, Faces of Hope/Grieve Out Loud. I would love to work for/with ALL of them...if I could! 

Capture Your Grief

I am taking part of the fantastic Carly's project: Capture Your Grief. It is a good reason for me to do some writing here this month. October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month and always brings so many emotions as I remember River and all of the other children gone too soon. It also would be the month that River turned 3 and a half years old...nearing 4! I would preparing a child for preschool and that is terribly hard for me to imagine. It seems impossible that it's been almost 4 years.

I will be sharing pictures here periodically throughout the month here are a few for this week:

October 3, 2012

This picture was taken the day after River was born, just 4 days before he died.

This family picture was taken in fall of 2011, River would have been nearing 2.5 years old. We hadn't planned to take a famliy photo but our photographer insisted. River managed to be part of it anyway! My husband is wearing a River's Run and Ride Rally shirt and a Hope Rocks hat ♥ Photo taken by Kix Photography.

Some of you may know the Rocket Club song, One More Day. River's picture is in their video and this is a special item signed by the band (except the drummer). They performed for our organization in April of 2012 (near River's 3rd birthday). It was such a special event for us! PS it was really hard to choose one treasured item.

Memorial garden. It is our way of taking care of something living on this earth in his memory. Some days I think it is out of control craziness but then I remember that he would be a little boy nearing 4 years old...

Self-explanatory