Follow Your Heart: May 2009

Happy 8th Birthday Blake! In honor of Blake's 8th Birthday I have been looking back on his birthday celebrations with us. This is such a sad and difficult time to celebrate, as I miss Blake so very much and I would love to throw him a huge 8 year old birthday party. However, I want to celebrate Blake's life and the JOY he brought to us all. Each year with Blake was a blessing, starting with his birth on May 31, 2001. He was a big boy weighing 9lbs. 15 oz. Such a precious baby boy.

We chose Blake's 1st Birthday theme to be butterflies. Blake had undergone a few surgeries in his first year of life and we felt he was experiencing new life as the butterfly does. We had Uncle Curt play his guitar and we sang some of Blake's favorite songs like, "If all of the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops" and the Elevator song which he knew parts to each of these.

Ryan, Blake and Cousin Ryan

Sitting up with his presents

Blake's 2nd Birthday was a farm theme. We had great hopes for his 2nd birthday. On March 11, 2003 Blake suffered a very long seizure (over a hour long). From that day on he slowly lost so many of the wonderful abilities that he had. His words, his smiles and most notably his ability to hold his body up by himself. He was taking valium as a bridge between seizure meds and this was part of the reason he was so 'floppy'. He was to be weaned off the valium by his birthday. We planned a big birthday bash, but as Blake's party came closer we realized he wasn't going to be able to do many of the things we were planning.

Sadly, he didn't enjoy his horse ride too much...

But we did have a real bunny for Blake to enjoy the softness of it's touch. Overall, this was probably the most difficult birthday for me as I had so much hope of having a fun, typical 2 year old party for Blake and was deeply saddened that he really couldn't enjoy his special day.

Wishes was Blake's 3rd Birthday theme. We had come to realize the most important things for Blake was for him to feel our love, hear, see and smell beautiful things. We asked friends and family to send Blake 3 year old wishes that we compiled in Blake's Wish book. We decorated his party with lots of pretty blue lights (blue being Blake's favorite color and Blake liked looking at lights). We also had many candles around us. We had everyone who came to the party read their wishes to Blake and we read wishes of some of those who couldn't be there as well. There were many tears as we read. Drew made a special box to put all of Blake's wishes in.

Mommy's Wish

To my sweet Blake, I wish so much for you...

I wish you PEACE

*for you to live without pain or suffering.

*for you to find comfort in our loving touches.

I wish you JOY

*for days filled with your smiles and laughter.

*for you to enjoy playing with your brothers.

I wish you HEALING

*for your VGM to disappear.

*for your brain to work as it should.

I wish you STRENGTH

*for you to continue to have the will to fight this terrible problem

I wish you LOVE

*for you to know and feel the immense love I have for you.

Happy 3rd Birthday Blake!

I LOVE YOU!!! Mommy

We gave Blake a fish tank for his birthday as we thought he might enjoy the sound of the water and watching the colorful fish swim around.

One of the greatest miracles of Blake's 3rd birthday were his Birthday smiles!!!!!!!!!! He had not had many smiles in the past few months and Blake had a string of smiles that will forever be some of my most favorite smiles.

We celebrated Blake's 4th Birthday with a Mickey Mouse theme. We had visited Disneyland the month before Blake's birthday. I was able to see Blake's birthdays now as a gift instead of focusing on the saddness of what he wasn't able to do. Each birthday meant a celebration that Blake is still with us and that was something to celebrate!

We made shrinky dink Mickey Mouses with messages for Blake and hung them above his swing for him to enjoy.

Since we had just come back from Blake's Make a Wish trip to Maui, a Hawaiian luau party was a perfect theme for Blake's 5th birthday. We all wore homemade leis, drank Lava Flows and did the limbo. It was a great celebration of Blake's life. We had a power point that Daniel put together showing many pictures of Blake growing up.