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Post by heidiforever on Jun 23, 2007 11:06:57 GMT -5
and angel days...at the request of Chris, I want to start this thread so we can all talk about how we remember our childrens' birthdays and angel days. What do you do on these days to honor them?
btw, Chris, we think this is a great idea. I think it might actually help us think of new ideas, too.
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Sarah
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Posts: 126
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Post by Sarah on Jun 23, 2007 15:21:37 GMT -5
Im very new at this life.. but this is what i did for my son's 8th birthday 1 month after he passed away...
We went to the beach (his fav place) drove out to where we always go, i brought 8 balloons with me, tied a candle on each one, we let them go up to him as the sun set. I had a small cake and 8 candles, we blew them out and dropped the cake into the ocean for him.
I gave his bike that i had bought him for his birthday to his best friend in school. And the other presents i had already got for him are still wrapped. Not sure what i'm going to do with them yet.
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Post by liberty4 on Jun 23, 2007 17:54:41 GMT -5
Every year since Destiny's death, our family has gone to her grave (my dh, other kids, and I). We take a picnic meal, spread a blanket, eat. We tie a mylar birthday balloon to her vase, then we each release a latex balloon one at a time and tell her a story, read a poem, or just tell her we miss her (whatever we want). This has become our tradition.
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Post by wuvmyangel93 on Jun 23, 2007 18:42:18 GMT -5
Since I am over 1600 miles away the only time I get to visit my son is his birthday now.
Up until I moved in 2002 I would visit his grave every month or every couple of months and I would decorate his blue spruce tree with different ornaments for each month.
Jan-bells everytime a bell ring another angel gets its wings
feb-valentine hearts etc. oriental trading company even sells heart links that I made into garland, and wrapped around the tree, mini heart locks with the keys (keys to my heart), mini mailboxes with notes in everyone to him (different each year), flocked bears with hearts etc, anything that fit.
march-st. patrick day clovers and kites
april-easter everything, I would even do easter eggs plastic filled ones all around his tree and his grave, easter flocked sitting bunnies on the ground, little crosses on the tree, cookies in the shape of crosses with red dye on the tips to remind us of Jesus death/resurrection
may-all kinds of baby animals to remind us of new life, his flowers would be blooming at this time
june-sailboats since he was mommy's little sailor and I love sailoutfits and the 15th was my birthday
july-stars for 4th of july and anything else to fit, NO flags
august is his birth month so it would be whatever theme I was doing that year, some years extremely elaborate as he got older not as much, but always the table cover, party ware, the hat went on his tree, always bubbles, always a birthday cake
september-back to school with books, pencils etc.
october-halloween of course this and valentines were always the biggest decorated since Halloween was the only holiday he got to see and valentines was my favorite. I would search out the biggest pumpkin for him you know charlie brown and the great pumpkin, all kinds of treats, etc.
november is the month he died so the tree was always low key. We lived in WA and loved apple cup the rival football game between the two major colleges. The mascots were cougars and husky so he had those animals and apples all over the tree in the team colors red/white, purple/gold and he had a bat with husky on it and another with bad to the bone, both blow up.
December-Christmas and he had some of the most expensive ornaments NO cheapie balls and crude for my son. He had real glass and ceramic ornaments, sometimes garland, always real ringing bells. He had a nativity set, had to replace a few times throughout the years. He also had over 50 real ceramic and brass bells my mum found him and this is when I would put them out and leave them throughout Jan.
All the theme ornaments I made out of fabric, sewed and added ribbon to hang, if anyone wants any nice fabric ornaments I can do them. I did them in tons of themes and they wash well.
The stars were out of star fabric, hearts out of heart fabric etc.
In addition to his tree he has his cherishteddies around the half of the grave where he is buried.
Next to where his head is he had a ceramic boy angel someone has stolen all his angels now and I cannot find boy angels. He also had about 5 other misc. angels.
In the center of the grave is his big 2-3 foot tall garden winnie the pooh, tigger, eyeore garden statues mom bought him in 2002, he has 4 of these, one is a bird bath, one is a fountain.
Around these are his planted bulbs, glads are the largest amount his birth flower. He has only pretty colors in all kinds, they need more added, but I am not at there to do it.
Around the base of his tree is the precious moments waterdome birthday train and sesame street number characters. So you have train car, than figure with number than car etc. I think this goes up to 10.
He used to get a cherishteddie on his birthday, but the last couple years I couldn't find any I liked.
He also has a cement dog made for me in 1994 of a dog that is painted, one side says hi/the other bye and you turn it when you go to visit.
His large wood cross and his special olympic medals a friend gave him disappeared 2 years ago and NO one will remake me a wood cross.
His fence rotted out, it has to be replaced.
For his birthdays he always gets gifts and than I normally donate them. He gets balloons whenever I visit, used to be monthly.
He used to get his huge easter basket complete with toys/gifts/candy just like a living child's on easter, christmas he would also have his stocking hung in my house.
When dad was able to drive and visit the cemetary with me he would bite the ears off his big chocolate bunny we would take pictures and than dad got all the candy. LOL
I loved decorating his grave and it is hard on me that I am not there.
He finally got his tombstone redone last aug, before he was unmarked for 13 years.
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Post by heidiforever on Jun 23, 2007 18:42:19 GMT -5
On my son's birthday and angel days, no one in my family remembers, so basically I sit around my house being sad, work a normal day, and hate everyone for forgetting. It's sad, but it's true. For Madeline, everyone remembers-with my help, usually...so we go to the cemetary and to Starbucks and out to the restaurant where my family celebrates everything, where we've been going for 17 years, at least. The rest of the day is up in the air. For Mad's 5th birthday, I blew up latex gloves lol I loved that idea! And I made her a cake on her 6th birthday. Sometimes I buy them things and leave them at the cemetary for them to "take". And I write letters to them, c/o God in Heaven, no return address.
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Post by wuvmyangel93 on Jun 24, 2007 21:49:06 GMT -5
my son also gets roses on June 3rd the day I moved him to his new cemetary
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Post by wuvmyangel93 on Jun 30, 2007 12:15:45 GMT -5
Chris
We did that for years, on the last day he say his therapist Nov. 16th I took toys to match his age to the therapy center. Of course the first 2 years were the biggest. than his therapist left and I kept doing it for a few years, but it didn't seem to matter since no one there remembered Christian.
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Post by smileyriley on Jul 10, 2007 9:40:21 GMT -5
For Riley's birthday we: released 4 balloons with a letter to heaven from his 2 big sisters, his dad, & me, lit candles for each person that celebrated with us, had cake & ice cream along with candles & the birthday song, we placed a few toys at the cemetery for him, collected stuffed animals for local ambulance & hospitals, left flowers in his grave vase, placed millar balloons by him, played softball as a family, & named a star after Riley from the National Star Registry.
Not sure what we are going to do for Riley's angel day yet, so I will be checking this from time to time for some good recommendations.
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Post by mimi28 on Aug 15, 2007 16:38:34 GMT -5
FOR MY SWEET DAUGHTER DESTINY BIRTHDAY I GO TO THE CEMETARY WITH HER FAV COLOR BALLOONS(YELLOW). I BRING HER CAKE AND PRESENTS.
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Post by missingisaiah on Oct 18, 2007 15:48:26 GMT -5
Heidiforever, I am new to this site. It is coming up on the anniversary of my son's angel date. He died when he was 3 weeks and 3 days old. How sad no one remembers your son's birth and angel dates. What is his names and what are the dates? How old was he? I will remember him and do something to honor him on those dates.
For what would have been Isaiah's first birthday we had balloons printed that said, "In memory of Isaiah Peder Heieren Sept 26-Oct 21, 2006. We had friends and what family could and would make it (my family is from another state and my husband's family is VERY unsupportive) meet us at Isaiah's grave. We read a story and some Scripture, shared memories of Isaiah, and than at 4:14 pm, the time he was born, we released the balloons. Most people came over to our house for a meal. I couldn't stand to have a birthday cake, so we did pies instead. His angel date is fast approaching. We are going to spend the afternoon hiking with friends who also have an angel baby, eating pizza, and watching a stupid funny movie. In the morning Jamie (husband) and I will go to his grave. I like the idea someone gave of reading him stories. I plan on doing that.
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Jani
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Posts: 409
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Post by Jani on Oct 24, 2007 13:58:48 GMT -5
On Freddie's birthday, we have a party for his twin brother Charlie. How hard it is to celebrate and grieve on the same day. We usually don't bring Freddie up too much because we don't want Charlie to feel overshadowed by his brother in heaven. On Freddie's angel date four days later, we usually drive to a mall, see a movie and start our Christmas shopping, just my husband and I. That is our time to talk about Freddie and grieve without feeling guilty about our other two kids.
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Post by trishadawn on Nov 10, 2007 17:15:46 GMT -5
Well it was Kailey's 3rd birthday last Sunday. We did a few small things to make it special. We were up at my husbands parents for the weekend, so on Sunday for lunch we all went out to McDonalds (Kailey's favorite....I was tempted to order a Chicken Nugget happy meal with chocolate milk...I should have), and then after that my husband and I headed home. On our way home, we stopped by the grave (she is burried an hour from where we live) and we bought a dora balloon and happy birthday balloon, so we put those in the ground. My parents had been there and set up 3 flameless candles along with some fushia gerber daisey's and a stuffed puppy. My husband and I spend some time alone and then shorty after some relatives joined us and brought pink & white hullium balloons. We all wrote a birthday message to Kailey on one and then let them go. It was pretty emotional, but healing at the same time. Then we all had supper together and at supper we all lit a candle in rememberance of Kailey and then set it as the center piece. It was really nice. One other thing we did in her memory was sponsor a child. We sponsored a little girl that was born Nov. 6, 2004, 2 days after Kailey's birthday.
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Post by jaredsmommyforever on Nov 14, 2007 1:22:37 GMT -5
Beautiful, Trisha! How perfect!! Such personal touches.
And sponsoring a child... What a gift and a blessing.
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miandra
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Lean not on your own understanding...
Posts: 102
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Post by miandra on Dec 31, 2007 9:02:10 GMT -5
As this is new to us, we have a few months to decide what to do for Manny. He loved cars and the water, I will leave that up to his mommy. I might do something on my own. I know I write as if Emmanuel was mine and he was. I was there when he was born. I was the one that fought with the doctors to have him transported to a Children's Hospital. My sister and I never gave up on him. I visited him weekly in the hospital. He was in the hospital for 15 months. I read to him, played with him, sang to him. I loved him as if he was my own. I am tryin to brave the next few days. I have avoided going to the funeral home, but on Wednesday I don't know if I can look at his cherubic face without breaking down.
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Post by bookiesbaby on Apr 9, 2008 10:52:41 GMT -5
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