Leah's Burial

Today is Leah's Heaven Day.  Five years ago today she left our arms, and went to be with Jesus in Heaven. Today we remember Leah's beautiful life, and still mourn her death.  In a small intimate gathering, we laid Leah to rest today up at Gibbs Cemetery, overlooking Leah's hometown, Sherwood.  Here are some pictures from this special ceremony.  As hard as the 5 year anniversary of Leah's death was to face, it felt like we created some treasured memories today as a family, which brought joy as we remembered and celebrated Leah's life.  Everything about this process, start to finish, seemed orchestrated by the Lord, and in the end, it all just felt perfect!








Luke designed Leah's urn, and added her name cut from Purple Heartwood.

Rick designed the temporary cross marker, which will stand until Leah's headstone is installed.

 Leah's headstone was a labor of love, born out of hours and hours of looking for just the right one, and never finding it. I got to personally design Leah's headstone, using Precious Moments pictures from Kyla's first Bible.  I knew I wanted a lamb, but when I added in the baby girl, it just felt so perfect.The granite we used for Leah's headstone is simply beautiful! When the light hits it just right, the purple garnet shimmers brilliantly, and makes me happy.  Luke and I both came up with the same epitaph on different occasions "99 Days in Our Arms, Forever in Our Hearts", so we knew that was what we wanted written on it.


I ordered a lovely flower arrangement of white daisies mixed with purple carnations and baby's breath.  It turned out beautifully.

Today I added one final touch to our burial service ~ Programs!  Each one has Leah's photograph on the front, along with the order of service for our time together up at the cemetery.  I hope it will serve as a keepsake for our family who attended, to remember with love and hope, our precious Leah Grace.

We really wanted Leah's burial to be a small, intimate, family event.  Kyla and Ezra both helped Luke with the burial.

I read Psalm 139, as well as a final good-bye letter to my precious daughter.

Kyla decided she wanted to kiss Leah's "box" as her final good-bye.

Then Ezra decided he wanted to kiss Leah's box too.

Luke placing a purple rose on Leah's grave.

Our family at Leah's Grave

We released purple balloons in Leah's honor

The balloons were so lovely, but just like Leah, how quickly they were gone.

Luke plans to come back in a few weeks and install the headstone himself.  From start to finish this whole burial process has been one of healing, and yet another milestone in our grief and the process of  "Leaning to Say Good-Bye"