A Birthday Wish

I can't believe we celebrated Ella's 2nd birthday. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday and I was kissing her sweet little cheeks and other times it feels like a million years ago.  And no matter how many years will pass, there is always something about her birthday that brings pain and happiness together. 

Leading up to her birthday was a little tough. My heart just gets so heavy and I can't think about anything else but how much I miss my little girl.  However, we are surrounded by such good people who continue to remember our baby girl's birthday.  We received flowers, cards, emails, and donations all in her memory.  It helped to lift my spirits a little on Friday.

Friday morning we started bright and early with our Ella's Halo donations.  We felt it was a fitting day to do donations on her birthday.  We went to Amplatz, Children's Minneapolis and Children's St. Paul.  Seeing all of our new friends and contacts at the NICUs was such a nice way to start off Ella's birthday.  We know that many families and babies received some love from Ella's Halo on our baby's day.

Next we stopped at home so I could make cute little pink cupcakes.  It is a birthday after all and my sweet tooth needed some birthday cake!  Afterwards, we went to look for a birthday gift for our little girl's garden and went for lunch.  It was nice to take our time shopping and eating and spending time together. 

It turned out to be a sunny and beautiful afternoon so we went to the local florist shop where we bought Ella's memorial flowers.  We purchased two pink little balloons from the lady that helped us two years ago.  She was a sweet lady who also lost a baby many years ago and she remembered us.  How sweet is that!

We went over to a nearby lake and since it has been so cold here in Minnesota the lake is still frozen, so we strolled out into the middle of the lake and released to pink balloons up into the bright blue sky.  We watched them go all the way up and those two little balloons stayed side by side.  It was just beautiful.  And this year Ella didn't pop either balloon! 

And of course before we fell asleep, a very sweet daddy sang happy birthday to his precious little angel.  I couldn't have asked for a better birthday wish for our little girl.