Angel Demboski's Memorial

Today we had a balloon memorial for Angel. My parents and Paul's parents came over early this morning for brunch. We cooked peiroges, eggs, cinnamon rolls, yogurt, fruit and juice. We had a wonderful time talking and laughing over brunch. It was nice to have our parents together to remember their grandson and to be happy. After we ate, we got our balloons ready. Andrew and Allison drew pictures for Angel, and the rest of us wrote a letter to him. We each attached our paper to a balloon. Once we were all ready, we went outside. It was a spectacularly clear and gorgeous day. The sky was bright blue with big fluffy while clouds. The sun was shinning, the kids were happy and there were no tears. We let the balloons fly up to heaven. It was nice to see Andrew excited about our baby getting the balloon and his picture up in heaven. I feel like it all made sense to him, which was really important to us. Allison kept saying "laboom" instead of balloon which was the cutest thing I think she has ever said. She would say "laboom, angel, heaven". It made my heart proud that my kids are getting to understand God and heaven. We watched the balloons fly up as high as possible until we were no longer able to see them anymore.
We then enjoyed laughing at both Papas playing with the kids. We all played in the backyard for hours. Allison and Andrew were digging for worms and both papas were being extra silly.

I am so happy that we did this. It really felt like closure, it needed to happen.

Later that day I showed our parents the memory box that he hospital gave us with the tiny hand and foot prints. They were amazed, just like we were.

Paul and I have been attending a support group for perinatal and infant loss. It has really helped. Ours is just one of many sad stories, and our little boy is one of many babies that lost their life too soon.