Visitation

Tonight was visitation for Carleigh at the funeral home. Anthony and I got there around 4:30 pm. Visitation didn't officially start until 6 pm but we had people come before then. I wanted to get there early so I could spend some time with Carleigh and hold her. I was so glad to see her. They had put some of the makeup on her face and it looked kinda funny but I know they were just trying to make her color a little more normal. It didn't look bad by any means. After we had got there I realized I had forgotten Carleigh's fuzzy pink blanket to hold her in so once my dad got there he went back to our house to get it for me. I was going to wait to hold her until I got the blanket but I just couldn't wait that long. I ended up holding her pretty much the whole time. Anthony held her for a few minutes along with a couple of my family members-Jayme and Amber. Jayme is married to my cousin Bryan and Amber is my cousin. (Amber is due with her baby in May and she is the one who will be getting my breast milk.) We had lots of people come to the visitation. Thank you to everyone who came-friends, family, and coworkers. The time flew by so quickly. Before I knew it the visitation was over and people were making their way home or to a nearby hotel for tomorrow's services. We finally left around 9 pm. I didn't want to put Carleigh back in her casket but I knew I had to. Afterward we went to the Holiday Inn Express in town to eat some pizza with our family and friends staying at the hotel and then we went home. I'd just like to say, too, that the hotel has been very accommodating and nice (so I've heard) and we really appreciate that. They gave everyone attending Carleigh's services a discount and they even sent Anthony and me a sympathy card.

Thank you to those who have sent us flowers, gifts, and money. We plan on donating any money we get to the Neural Tube Defects Research Fund at Duke. Thank you to anyone who directly donates to them. It means a lot to have you support such a great area of research on Carleigh's and our behalf.

I have to share a wonderful surprise I got this evening. When Pastor Mark arrived at the funeral home we had a shipping envelope with him. In the envelope was a gift from Sue from the website My Forever Child. (I put the link to her site under "Helpful Websites" awhile ago.) Sue has been following Carleigh's blog and was touched by our strong faith and devotion. She expressed her sympathy for the loss of our daughter and let us know that she engraved a charm from Carleigh's footprints from the blog so that we could keep a piece of her wherever we went. The charm is on a bracelet and on the backside of the charm it has Carleigh McKenna and her birth date. She also sent a small bag of pins for our family members to wear. I was so shocked by her thoughtfulness and her kindness. I never expected to get such a wonderful gift! I absolutely love my bracelet and my family was very excited about getting pins to wear. (Sorry pics are so blurry-I took them with my cell. The pin says "Always in my heart.") Thank you so, so much Sue! She also sent a few cards with a little poem written on them. The poem is called My Forever Child and was written by her and it is lovely! (Click link to read.)