Peace

Hi, everyone. :)

It's been an amazing week for me. So full of sadness and celebration all mixed up... each emotion fighting for 100% attention in my brain.

I have to... HAVE to share with you about a sweet little baby and his precious family that I've just fallen head-over-heels in love with these past few weeks. I've held off from posting my experience with my friends Carla and Joe on my blog just because I didn't really know how much I could share without OVER sharing... you know what I mean? But I couldn't let another day pass without screaming at the top of my lungs "I've just witnessed a miracle..."

Any doubt that I've ever had about "perfect plans" or why people come in and out of my life the way they do... well, this baby, in just one hour, has forever erased those doubts in my mind. I'm not really a religious person... or at least I didn't think I was... until the moment baby Jody was born last week on Friday, April 10th. All of the odds were stacked against him. Yet for one whole hour, Jody brought life back into mine. What I mean by that is... Jody touched my soul in such a gentle way... but it was also like an earthquake, if that even makes any sense. That missing piece was actually never really missing to begin with. I didn't know that.

I'm always so busy with work and with family. I'm literally ALWAYS preparing for next MONTH, but for one whole hour on that rainy night...everything just kind of stopped. Even the rain (which I absolutely LOVE!) disappeared because I heard the most beautiful sound.. I heard Jody cry. He wasn't supposed to cry. But he did... and oh my god, it was like hearing the first cry of my little girl Avelina (who was also "not supposed to cry") all over again. It took everything in me to not throw my camera to the side and sit on the floor to just take it all in. I was truly witnessing a miracle because Jody wasn't supposed to survive birth... but he did.

He did more than that. He lived for one... whole... hour.

It was a week ago, today, that this miracle wrapped in a white blanket with his name stitched on a corner has incredibly impacted my life with one precious cry.

I will be with Carla, Joe and their family tomorrow to say my final goodbye to that beautiful boy. I can still feel him in my arms. I can still smell his sweet scent. I am bonded with this family in a way that I've never felt before. I will celebrate not only what Jody has done in my life, but what he will continue to do in so many lives that he's touched.

... and I couldn't let another day go by without sharing his story with you.

*edited to add pic of this little angel*  Thank you, Carla and Joe!