Mother to a teen....

I always looked forward to Bubba turning 13.

For some reason 13 seemed like such a huge mile stone.

13.....

13 didn't turn out to be as wonderful as I had imagined.

Our sweet Bubba spent his 1st birthday in Heaven and what would have been his 13th birthday here on earth with us.

Hubs and I went back and forth with how we should handle this very hard day.

We wanted it to be a celebration of his life and not a reflection of his death.

So, that is what we did.

It was HARD.

Oh, it was hard but it was also beautiful.

We are blessed to be surrounded by so many people that love and support our family.

The night before Bubba's birthday I went into the grocery store to place the order for the balloons and briefly told him what they were for. The next morning when I went to pick them up....the {tattooed, tuff looking} man looked at me with tears in his eyes and said "It hit me last night while I was at home who these balloons were for. I want you to know how special that little boy of yours is. He always had a smile on his face.... even under that silly mask I could tell he was smiling. He is my Hero. Please take these balloons as my birthday gift to him." We stood there in the middle of the grocery store crying and hugging. ;) In that moment I realized that this was exactly what I wanted his birthday to be about! I wanted to remember how Bubba touched EVERYONE'S lives... even the man in the grocery store that would give him balloons. ;)

We decorated his grave in true birthday fashion.

Not exactly how I had pictured decorating for his 13th birthday but we still tried to make it special.

We gathered with friends and everyone shared stories about Bubba.

There were lots of tears and lots of laughs.

Then we sent balloons to heaven.............

to our birthday boy.

 

A huge thank you to everyone that came to celebrate our boy and support us on this very hard day.

After our celebration of life at the cemetery Hubs, Regan, a couple friends,  and I headed over the hospital.

 

Bubba's Hospital Miller Children's Hospital.

 

We wanted to do something positive in Bubba's name on his birthday.

 

So, Team Bubba held a toy drive and boy did y'all come through!!!

 

Team Bubba you rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

By doing smalls acts of kindness we can do great things!!!

 

{I have more pictures to post about his later.}

We pulled up to the hospital and started to unload wagon after wagon of toys. ;)

 

Bubba's first birthday with out him here on earth was beautifully hard.

 

We missed him so much.... we always miss him

 

BUT

 

We took comfort in the stories shared... the lives touched.... the children that will receive toys in his name... and the prayers and kind words that given on a very hard day.

Thank you Team Bubba for loving my boy.....

 

for remembering my boy....

 

for honoring my boy and paying it forward.

 

A lot of little lives were blessed because of you.

 

By doing small acts of kindness we can do great things!!!

 

Thank you.

 

Happy Birthday Bubba! Mommy loves and misses you so much!!!!

 

I always knew that being a mother to a teenager would be hard but I had no idea it would be this hard.