Heaven Day 2012

Heaven Day is what we affectionetly call the anniversary of Caden's death.

It is not a sad day.

It is a day of rejoicing.

Our sweet, precious baby girl is in Heaven.

Septemeber 22nd marks the anniversary of the day Caden entered into Jesus' arms and began her eternity of praise and worship of our Holy Father.

An awesome day to celebrate.

This year marked the 4th anniversary of Caden's death. She has been living joyously in Heaven for 4 years... I'm a bit jealous.

As Heaven Day approached I struggled with a way to teach Rigg (3) and Ryder (20 months) about Caden and how to view death.

The Captain and I so do not want the concept of death to be creepy or scary to our sons. And for their entire lives they are going to have a death closely attached to them and their family. The only thought that I landed upon was that I wanted their first memory... their first concept of death to be a celebration... to be happy and full of joy and hope.

They are way too young to really grasp all of this... so it had to be a tangible celebration... tangible Joy... I wanted to create a tradition for our family that would brand in the mind of my sons that death, for a Believer, is an awesome, joyous thing.

I want to instill this memory... this feeling into them, so when they are old enough to really try to work through the idea of death that this is their first truth... Joy. Happiness. Celebration.

So... how? What do you do to create this feeling of joy and happiness and celebration?

How about sky lanterns?

So on Heaven Day 2012 we started what I hope to be the first of many, many years of lighting lanterns and sending them up into the Heavens to thank God for Caden, for Hope... and for providing the only way for our salvation... a way for us to see her again!

For weeks I have been talking to Rigg and telling him about the lanterns. We talked about Caden and looked at her pictures.  I would ask him if he knew why we were lighting the lanterns. By the end of last week he finally could respond "Because Caden lives in Heaven with Jesus."

Saturday night my little family gathered with more family.

We prayed and thanked God for Caden. For Hope. For life and Christ's Salvation. And for the opportunity to celebrate this great day with those we love.

Heaven is worth much celebrationg, friends.