Celebrating Merideth's Birthday

I realize it probably feels like I have overused the word “celebrate” in a lot of my talk about the time with Merideth in our home. As a writer, I try to use a variety of words, but sometimes that is just the best word that comes to mind. The time that she was in our home felt like a week-long party with a spirit of joy and so many people stopping by who joined in our celebration of life. We knew that our time was limited, but that did not put a damper on our time with her at the moment. Yet, in an effort not to be too repetitive with the word, I looked up in the thesaurus another word for “celebrate.” It offered “rejoice,” which made me smile. That also expresses my feeling of having Merideth in our family. She did give us a spirit of joy and peace, and this word does convey the feelings we have to be parents of our children.

We had fun celebrating Merideth’s birthday. As I have thought for some time what to do, I had two specific desires. The first was to take her a balloon. Of course, that meant I had to buy two balloons because I knew there was no way I could buy just one and tell Natalie we were going to let it go. Natalie was thrilled to have one for herself, and I said that hers was an early birthday present, so maybe that will become a tradition.

My second wish for Merideth’s birthday was to have our immediate families write their thoughts about her. Looking back, I can see that this was asking a lot, but I appreciate the time and personal effort that they put into their notes. It was really a gift for me that I treasure.

We went to the cemetery and I shared some personal thoughts I’ve had in the past week as I’ve been thinking a lot about Merideth. I read a few of the letters from family, and then Natalie couldn’t wait any longer to let Merideth’s balloon go. After we couldn’t see it any more, we went to a nearby ice cream shop for a birthday treat. I think that may become another fun tradition for Merideth’s birthday.