Thank You, Thank You!

One of our dreaded tasks that I wanted to conquer before going back to work was mail out thank you cards for all the wonderful support we have received the last couple of months. At first the dilemma was what cards to use. Sure, we were given some cards from the funeral home to use, but of course they were too generic for our princess. They needed SOME kind of pink on them! J thought we could take them to Staples and have Ava's name personalized on them.  It was a great idea, but taking a 100 sympathy thank you cards to the store and asking them if they can put your daughter's name on them was something neither of us wanted to do. Since we weren't able to use one of the birth announcement cards we had previously picked out, I decided to do something similiar.  A thank you card with Ava's picture so we could show off our princess. =) Once I designed them and had them developed, I decided that wasn't enough either, I still felt like they needed something else. I went to Hobby Lobby and looked for an "angel" stamp and pink stamp pad. . .I found the perfect angel stamp and guess what color of pink the stamp pad was. . . ANGEL pink. =) It was the first pink I picked up and I thought it was SO perfect! Of course, I also had to get a pink pen to write with to make it extra girly. =) Next we needed address labels, I designed the address labels to match the thank you card. As I was ordering the address labels, I decided to create "business cards" with our blog address to put in the envelopes with our thank you's.  This way I could share our blog with family/friends who are not on facebook, plus I thought it would be nice to keep a few in my purse, in case I want to share our story with someone or find someone in a similiar situation. 

Here is all of our "thank you" supplies. . .

We have had our thank you cards, address labels, angel stamp, and stamps for AWHILE, but for some reason, sitting down and actually writing thank you for everyone's generosity is a dreaded task that we kept putting off.  Not because we aren't appreciative of everyone's generosity, we certainly are!!! Let's be honest, sitting down writing thank yous is never enjoyable, even if it is for a fun occasion. 

For weeks and weeks I debated on whether or not to add an additional handwritten note with the cards, thanking each person specifically for their gifts.  I finally decided it would be better just to send them than to hold on to them for who knows how long.  We still have a few more to go, but here is our "virtual" thank you to all of you. . . =)

 

We would like to thank everyone for all of their thoughts and prayers over the last eight weeks. We have been SO overwhelmed by everyone's kindness and gifts, we can not express enough to you guys how much they have meant to us.  Everything from. . .

* bringing us dinners

* donating restaurant and entertainment gift cards

* sending us BEAUTIFUL flowers 

* donating to Ava's memorial fund

* sending us cards in the mail. . . many days checking the mail is one of the highlights of my day. It's always great to see a new card in the  mailbox as opposed to a medical bill. =)

* care packages for B

* special WillowTree angels
* books on infant loss

* all the wonderful Facebook comments and private messages

* texts checking on us or just letting us know you thought about us

* home visits from friends and family

* keeping us in your prayers

* just remembering our sweet lil princess Ava

From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

An update on how we are doing. . .
Overall, we are able to put on a good "front" that things are ok/life is moving on, but deep down we are broken. Our hearts are broken, a piece of our souls is gone forever. I have my moments/triggers where I ask myself why did this have to happen to us and just simply thinking about what our life is SUPPOSED to be like right now.  Today was my first day back at work, although I had A LOT of anxiety leading up to it, it went really well. . .and just 4 more weeks to go. =) J has been back at work for awhile now and is doing good. With his line of work (reviewing leave of absences), he is often reminded of Ava or other parents having to go through heartbreaking situations (such as miscarriages or parents having to take off work to take their child to treatments, etc.). His strength amazes me. . . I know I would not be able to handle hearing all of the emotional stories and still be able to compose myself to get work done. =)  B is doing much better with going to bed, usually he just has one night a week where he has a breakdown, which is much better than every night. He is very aware of me and ANY lil sniffle I have (even if it's just from my nose running). He is constantly checking on me and making sure I am ok. . . such a sweet spirit about him.  Life IS difficult right now, but we understand with the support of our family and friends we eventually will be stronger through this experience.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers, we are SO appreciative of them! =)

Thanks for following along with us,