My Moonlight Aura sculptures

I thought I would also share the sculptures that I got from Moonlight Aura. This shop is special in that Krystal specializes in the sculpting of hands. The hands can hold objects, be signing in sign language, or be representing something else.

I got a pair of hands holding a purple flower. Normally, Krystal would put her own butterfly on the piece but I requested to put my own on. I wanted to add to the sculpture one of Carleigh’s butterflies from her 2nd birthday cake to make it more special. I figured one of the small white ones would work perfectly and I was right!

I also got a small hand sculpture in gold signing ‘I Love You’.

I also got a couple clay pendants that are usually used for necklaces and I made it into a suncatcher that hangs in our van.

I would definitely love to get more sculptures from her shop. I already have my eye on a few!

My Midnight Orange Sculptures

I have been wanting to share here the sculptures I have from The Midnight Orange that I have gotten that hold special meaning for my babies.

This piece is called You Make Me Gleam and is the first sculpture I ever got from The Midnight Orange. I actually won it through a giveaway held by Stephanie back in October 2009. All of us who entered were able to have a sculpture created by D. Antonia thanks to her own generosity. I  picked this piece out for Carleigh. I just love it.

It wasn’t until March this year that I bought my second sculpture, even though I had kept my eye on many of them. I even wanted to get a custom order done by D. Antonia but then she stopped doing customs because of the growth in popularity of her sculptures.

My second sculpture is called Love Grows In The Moonlight and I bought this piece specifically to go on Carleigh’s second birthday cake. It went perfectly with her butterfly themed cake and I have always loved how the colors purple and teal go together. Plus, purple is Carleigh’s color! Now it is a lovely reminder to me of her 2nd birthday.

The third and fourth sculptures I got were the piece called Sleeping. I got a purple one for Carleigh and a yellow one for Jordan.

The fifth and sixth I got for them is called Quiet Time and is of a baby butterfly resting on a toadstool. Again, I got one for each of them in their colors.

The seventh is called These Lazy Days. I actually bought this piece and put it up on the SGM online auction I hosted and then I rebought it because I really loved it. I like to think it is me and Carleigh just basking in the sun together. I’m laying there and she comes along and lands on me and it is just perfect.

The eighth is called a Wee Creature and was made by D. Antonia for Carleigh. In her words, “This one came down from Heaven and after two years of playing with Carleigh she's going to keep her momma some company.”

There are more pieces in my collection but these are ones I specifically bought or have for my babies. You can see half of my total collection here.

Silver Angel Wings

Not to long ago Franchesca held a giveaway for a silver angel wing necklace from Sue-Ella Signature Designs. I happened to be the lucky winner of the necklace. It was such a wonderful surprise! I had been eyeing some of this same jewelry and here I had won one! It just really made my day.

I got in contact with Sue to figure out what I wanted to do with the necklace I had won. I decided that I wanted to buy another angel wing on top of the one I had won so that I could have one for Carleigh and one for Jordan. Sue suggested a different angel wing necklace where I could have the wings facing the opposite way and it sounded perfect.

Last week I got my lovely necklace in the mail and it is just so beautiful. And I just happened to be wearing my angel wing shirt of Carleigh’s that my friend Mary made me.

The angel wings are fine silver with a sterling silver chain. On the back of the angel wings are my babies’ name in the same photos that Carly took. Each angel wing also contains sand from Christian’s beach.

Then I got snap happy with my camera and decided to take a picture of the angel wings with their sculptures from The Midnight Orange. So you see Jordan’s angel wing with his yellow Sleeping sculpture and Carleigh’s angel wing with her purple Sleeping sculpture. I just love how it turned out.

Thank you, Sue, for such a beautiful necklace! I truly love it!

A special blanket made even more special

My friend Heidi has a beautiful ministry called Butterfly Kisses. With her ministry she takes blankets for your baby and embroiders them with their hand and foot prints. After seeing her work a couple times I really wanted to get this done for Carleigh.

I decided to do the blanket that was given to me by some family members for Carleigh’s first Christmas in Heaven in 2009. The soft, pink, marshmallow blanket was already embroidered with her name and birthday and a moon holding a little bear.

The blanket has sat in her memory chest since we got it. I had not even unwrapped it from the ribbon or taken it off the hanger it came on. But I took off the ribbon and removed the hanger (then put the ribbon back on) and sent it off to Heidi for her to do her magic. She did a fabulous job!

The blanket for now has been wrapped back up in the ribbon and put back in the memory chest. I plan to get it out more and use it for both the girls and me as they continue to get older. I imagine us wrapped up in it and they ask about the prints and then I can talk to them about their sister.

Thank you Heidi!

What I’m grateful for

I decided to take part in a writing link-up with The Dead Baby Club. I like linking up to stuff like this because it gives me the opportunity to sit and think and write about things on my grief journey. I don’t write like I used to simply because sometimes I feel like everything has already been said, but I know that’s not true. This journey is continually evolving. The topic for this link-up is about gratitude.

Gratitude. Since the loss of my child(ren) the one thing I am most grateful for is…..

I have found that I am a lot more grateful for healthy, living children than I ever was. I took it for granted. I mean, I realized things happened but I never figured it would happen to me. It’s always other people that stuff happens to. But then it became me and my world was shattered and changed forever. The innocence of pregnancy was no more and in crept the fear of losing another child. And it didn’t end with the end of the pregnancy. It continues as the child grows.

My husband thinks I am a little overboard at times with our rainbow baby. Like when I check on her breathing just 5 minutes after putting her down asleep or when we are driving and I check on her in her car seat to make sure she’s still breathing. I can’t help it. The death of my child has made me paranoid. I told him that just because it happened to us once doesn’t mean we are exempt from it happening again. There are no rules with this kind of thing.

More than ever I believe that every child who is born healthy and alive is a true miracle. I don’t take that miracle for granted like before.