Signs of Peace

After we spent some time at the Toys for Tots warehouse packaging up toys, my mom and I headed over to the cemetery to check on something special we set up there for Ellie. Dave and I found solar powered Christmas lights, so yesterday we went to the cemetery with my parents to wrap them around her tree. Today, we went to see if they were going to work once they were all charged up- and they did! Dave and I want to go out there one night to see how they look in the darkness.

The cemetery we picked for Ellie is beautiful. It's a memorial garden so there are no monument type headstones, only flat ones. There are rolling hills and a lot of large beautiful trees. Ellie's spot in tucked in between some large pine trees. Today everything was covered in a fresh coat of snow... so peaceful and serene.

While we were there today we saw a hawk gliding above us and it reminded me of the day we buried our sweet girl. It was so obvious that day that Ellie wasn't far away...

The three days before Ellie's funeral were very cold, windy and rainy- actually it was the equivalent of an inland hurricane... But the day of her celebration was beautiful, blue skies and a slight breeze. We all gathered around Ellie's small casket, nestled beneath three pine trees. As Pastor Paul began to read, my husband noticed an eagle hovering high above in the sky, right over us. It stayed there for several minutes, and then it just disappeared. I'm sure it was our Peanut showing she was ok.


The eagle (and an airplane...)

After the service, we handed out balloons to everyone. At her funeral service we wrote messages to Ellie on small pink and purple heart-shaped tags; we tied those to ribbons on the balloons. We counted to three and sent our messages up to heaven. All but three balloons drifted away in a pink, purple, green and yellow mass.

Three balloons got caught in three seperate trees. A green balloon, a yellow balloon and a purple balloon. The green balloon was the one my mom released. The next day the balloon had popped but the paper hearts are still in the tree.



Ma's Balloon (Ellie's Grandma)

The yellow balloon was the one my grandma released. Her balloon stayed inflated for at least a week, her messages are still there too.

Grams' balloon (Ellie's Great-Grandma)

The purple balloon was my balloon. I know this because I wrote her note the night before and glued pink gemstones on the tag and they glistened in the sun.

My balloon and message to Ellie

My balloon stayed in the tree for several minutes and then slowly floated away, all by itself. At first I was upset that my balloon and message hadn't stayed at Ellie's gravesite, but I now think Ellie wanted my message up there in heaven with her, and it went seperately so Ellie knew which one it was.


  I really don't think it was a coincidence that the three balloons left behind represented the three generations Ellie left behind.

Four Generations- at Ellie's baptism, less than two weeks before she died

I found Ellie's burial service to be very beautiful and left knowing that she was at peace. I swear Ellie was there with us that day, comforting us and showing us that she was alright. Thank you for that Little Peanut!