More Pre-arrangments

Earlier today I called the cemeteries we were deciding on to see what "rules" they had and they were pretty much the same. I talked to Mary Ellen from Springfield Friends first and she was really nice. In my gut I felt like it was the cemetery I wanted to go with but I wanted to see each first before I made the final decision. I called Sugar Grove too and they were ok on the phone. Anthony had said he wanted to go with Springfield Friends before. So after work I drove by each cemetery. I actually went into Springfield Friends but I knew pulling up to it that it was going to be the one. It just felt right. It's in the country and it seems very peaceful. An added bonus is that it is much cheaper too. So that is where Anthony, Carleigh, and I are going to be buried-all right beside each other. I'm going to be getting a hold of Mary Ellen sometime within this next week if the snow melts to go look at plots and decide which ones we want.

We met with Brian again from the funeral home tonight to go over more of the arrangements for Carleigh's funeral. Pastor Mark stopped by for a little bit too before he had to head to church. We finalized that we are burying her at Springfield Friends Cemetery. She will have a steel vault and a steel casket. Her casket is going to be the 2 foot size and white on the outside with lavender shading and be a full (meaning the lid opens as one and not two separate compartments). The interior will be velvet and colored lilac. We're not putting any special paneling in there. I like the sunburst just fine. I looked at the different memorial cards and verses they had but I'm not sure if I'm fond of any of them. So I'm going to do my own search online to see if I like something better. I asked and I can order them plain online and then send them to the funeral home and they'll print them. We started looking over her marker and decided on the color Sunset Red for the granite. Carleigh's marker is going to be decent sized and not one of those laying flat on the ground. We didn't want that at all. We wanted something you'd be able to see. We're going to have her full name and dates on there but that's about all we know right now. I'd like to have some sort of saying on there and maybe even a picture. It's something I'll be looking into. Brian went over the prices and a roundabout total that didn't include the marker and the plots. He'll be sending the figure to my dad, and we made sure we told him after we left so there wouldn't be any surprises. This second visit to the funeral home went better than the first emotionally. We both handled it really well and Brian mentioned to us how we seemed to be filled with the grace of God and he can tell a big difference between us and people who don't have that. It made me feel good that we seem to be having an impact on other people. Don't get me wrong this is a very hard thing to do and it hurts having to plan our daughter's funeral, but we know that God is with us. I hope that we can show others that there is no trial too great that God can't get us through.

On with better news! I got Carleigh's hospital outfit today! Lindsey brought it to work and it is so pretty (and small)! I also got some hats in the mail from Jessica from ABFA. (Thanks!) I also got something else in the mail because I got a yellow card in our PO Box but Shirley (our postmistress) leaves at 1:30pm and I don't usually get home til around 2:30pm after picking up Kyndra from the sitter's and coming home. I'm very curious so I may have to leave work a bit early tomorrow to pick up whatever is waiting for me!