Four years ago we welcomed into our lives our second son, James Robert. While we no longer celebrate this day as a birthday in the normal sense this does not mean that the day does not go by without remembering the birth that did occur. So much has happened in the past four years that it seem like a lifetime ago, but as I look through the photo albums it all comes back like it was yesterday. I have to fold some wash today and while I fold wash I often pop in a video ... I look forward to watching some of James' life again today

On November 23 we took some time as family to celebrate the life of James. We set aside the day to remember the special boy who touched our lives so drastically. It was also a blessing that this day was a Sunday and so we had to opportunity to be uplifted by the preaching of the word also during this day.

Between church services we went to visit the grave site. I had been previously to see the stone but the rest of the family had not. When James passed away the girls each bought a rose in their favourite colour (blue for Mareitta, red for Rebecca) and placed them in the coffin with James. So this year the girls each bought a rose again and layed them by his stone. They already talk about how they're going to do the same next year. We wanted to add something special to the stone to say "James" and so we also placed James' favourite truck, a Leon's delivery truck on the foundation of his stone. Much thanks goes to the Leon's Customer Service Rep who took the extra effort to track down one of these little trucks for us that were used for a promotion a couple years ago.

In the evening we took some time to watch the movie Babe. James watched this movie endlessly for his last couple weeks of life. He could not talk to tell us what he found so special about it, but he only want to watch this movie and so we watched it pretty much around the clock for those two weeks and it holds a very special place in our hearts. We also took some time to look through James' memory box and talk about some of the things in there. Although the day had it's sad moments it was a nice day overall.

Many have asked how thing went during the month of November and overall I can say quite well. As the montage we posted says "not a day goes by that I don't think of you". This remains true. During the month of November this may have been more so then normal but it was not any harder then normal. And while we cried a bit extra especially on the 23rd it was not overwhelming and it was nice to take some time out to specifically remember a life that meant so much to us.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those who did remember us on this day by sending us cards, emails, notes, etc. We especially loved the little notes/stories that told of peoples memories of James. It's always to special to hear other peoples perspective or memories, sometimes reminding us of things we had forgotten about and sometimes telling us things we had never heard before.

There are many, many things we learned for James. For such a small child he sure taught us a lot, but if there is one thing that we really learned it is to cherish each day we have. To slow down and take as much time as we can to enjoy our family and the treasures we have around us. What a gift and blessing our little James has been in our lives!!