I can only smile and cry as I reflect on this past weekend. Is this a dream? When am I going to wake up from this dreaded dream? Why would this be happening to us? Unfortunately, we are not in a dream. Selfishly, I should be ashamed of myself for ever thinking that we were not worthy of having something so bad happen to our family. The truth is our life was perfect. Our life with Hayden was not bad. Instead, it was magical. I almost feel ashamed for wishing the thought of wanting a healthy child. Just because Hayden was unhealthy, he was perfect. We will always WISH he was healthy because we want to have our little boy. We were blessed with an angel. We were given the opportunity to be parents to a missionary. We learned so much from Hayden. We were a strong team! Brent and I are still a pretty good team. Hayden leads all of our decisions in life. We had a hard yet great weekend. The reason for this was our amazing group of supporters. I cannot begin to tell you how many messages that we received this weekend. You are the reason for our HOPE!
We started our birthday weekend out by going to the dance recital. The theme was sunshine and beaches. All the dances were uplifting and sweet. Our hearts were overflowing with joy and happiness. The kids danced to “YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE.” We were surprised with tons of flowers at the end. These special moments made us grateful for all of our amazing friends in the community of Greenville. We have been given more love than we could ever deserve.
Following the dance recital, we had family/friends over to our house to release 12 lanterns and eat pizza. Well Hayden decided to make his presence through raindrops and a LIGHTENING SHOW that was much brighter than the lanterns! All we could do was laugh.
Yesterday, we had a birthday celebration. We did all of Hayden’s favorite things. We painted a canvas with our personal artist, Whitney. The guys even painted! She is going to do some final touches before framing it for the hospital. Hayden’s creativity will be forever placed into his second home. The kids had a blast! We ate a delicious cake by our friends at The Sweetery! The kids loved the sunflowers floating in the ocean on the cake. We swam and even let yellow lanterns go over the lake. It was a perfect day with family and friends. All in all without our family/friends, we would have not made it through this weekend. We are blessed. We are thankful. We are loved!
The sweet dance recital suprise warmed our heart........
the dozens of flowers and balloons made us smile......
the yummy cake made by our friends was perfect......
the cake explains his peace in Heaven......
we started from scratch......
we had a memory book of all his favorite days with his loved ones from 12 to 14.5 months....
we smiled and watched these talented girls dance to upbeat music.....
we ate cake as we imagined Hayden eating cake for the first time in Heaven......
we painted with HOPE for the kids in Mississippi's Children's Hospital......
we laughed and giggled.......
we shared memories of Hayden's crafts......
his best little girl friends painted the flower........
we thought about the good times at the lake house.....
Nona and Nana worked hard......
even the guys helped paint.....
they were neater than the girls......
it was coming together perfectly......
Hayden's friend cut the cake.....
the children did arts and crafts.....
we finished our first coat of the painting.....
We hope the painting makes the kids smile......
a great group of men......
our family is missing our angel in Heaven.....
Yellow Lanterns for our amazing son...
they were beautiful.....
true friends are there for each other on the good and the bad days.....
fly high to the Heaven above....
a few crashed......silly Hayden likes to make us laugh.....
a perfect happy from a sweet friend.....
nightime lanterns shined bright in the sky......
HOPE and PEACE and PROMISES to never give up.......
Thank you so much to all of our blog followers. Your prayers are felt each and every day. We still hurt 10 months later. We will forever remember Hayden. He will forever be our first born child. He will always keep us motivated to help others. It is so hard to blog now. It use to be so easy. You all know the story from start to finish. We will keep the blog open for families that need motivation and courage. We will continue to use this blog to share fundraisers and exciting Hayden moments with you. We love our journey with Hayden. Please send anyone that needs to talk our email address, lauren122885@hotmail.com. We have met many new friends that are going through the same thing. God has placed us on Earth to help others. We enjoy hearing other stories. We have so MUCH HOPE for the suffering. We will continue to pray for cures and miracles. May God Bless Each of You. Look for another blog in the later part of June.
With Love, Lauren and Brent Casavechia
