-DAY 13:  A CONSTELLATION OF REASONS

TRUTH:  What is your favorite color and what does it symbolize.  Both aquamarine and purple are my favorite colors and symbolize Emilia’s life.  I cannot begin to explain how much I love these two colors and how Emilia and God have used them to send signs to us.  Right after we found out Emilia was a girl we painted Adelaide’s new bedroom purple and aquamarine, knowing that both girls would eventually share a room.  Almost everything that we prepared for our daughters is decorated with those two colors.  Adelaide’s big sister shirt and Emilia’s take home outfit were both aquamarine and an outfit that Adelaide picked out for Emilia (which ended up being the outfit she was cremated in) was also purple and aquamarine.  The list goes on and on of crazy not-so-coincidental signs that include these two colors.  05/29/2017

DARE:  Walk barefoot outside or buy a small plant to bring the outside in your home.

-DAY 14:  SENSUALITY AND OUR SKIN

TRUTH:  Write a love letter to your body.  Include all the ways it helps you experience the world.  Of all the prompts, today’s has been by far the most difficult for me to find the right response.  To be honest and real, I have no love for my body right now.  My body betrayed me.  I know it is nothing that I did or didn’t do that caused Emilia to die – but as a parent – I will always be angry that there wasn’t something that I could have done.  My body created something so perfect and beautiful and for that, I am forever grateful.  That is the only positive thing I can say about my body right now.  I will always feel like I should have been able to protect her and that is the one thing I couldn’t do.  05/30/2017

DARE:  Send a sexy text to your man.  A picture is worth bonus points.

-DAY 15:  FEMININE POWER

TRUTH:  When was the last time you did something for the first time? I had to have Dan help me with this prompt.  I had no clue when I had done something for the very first time.  With his help, we came up with something that I had to do for this very challenge.  I had never had someone take photos of me dancing in the middle of a grocery store before.  I can only imagine how silly I looked to other shoppers.  It was well worth it though! Sometimes I think we need to allow ourselves to just act silly once in a while.  Life really does get too serious.  05/31/2017

DARE:  Plan an actual slumber party with your besties.

-DAY 16:  HOSPITABLE HEARTS

TRUTH:  When were you changed by someone else’s kindness? Our first trip to the grocery store after Emilia died was hard.  I felt miserable and life was overwhelming while I tried to reconfigure my purpose in life.  I think the hardest part of that day was seeing the outside world continue to move on.  Inside I was dying and Dan was equally hurting, but everyone else’s lives continued to move forward.  It was just a painful realization that the world was not going to stop for us to grieve or allow us the chance to play catch up while we emotionally dealt with our loss.  That day the cashier was a sweet man who was idly chit-chatting with us as we checked out.  Adelaide was helping us reload the cart with all of our bags and the cashier asked her to take the barcode scanner and help him scan items.  I’ll never forget Adelaide’s huge smile.  That kind of smile that is instantly contagious.  It goes to show you that an act of kindness does not have to be huge and elaborately planned out.  That man had no idea what was going on in our lives and probably had no clue how big of a change he made in my day.  It really is the small things.  He sure made Adelaide’s day and by making Adelaide’s day he made mine.  06/01/2017

DARE:  Bake cookies and deliver them to a neighbor you haven’t met yet.

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