You're Invited...

To a celebration to help us celebrate our sweet baby girl's 6 months of life with us here on this earth. The anniversary of her first birthday is this Saturday, September 20th, and we are hosting this event that afternoon and want to invite everyone that prayed for and followed Tori and our family during such a long journey.

All of my readers were very much a part of encouraging our family and so many felt like you knew Tori and myself through my daily posts. We would love nothing more than to meet you in person if we have never been given the opportunity, or see you again if we have, on this special day. It will be a difficult one, and bittersweet indeed, but special to celebrate her ever being with us...if even for a short time. It has already been a rough past few days, but I believe that doing this for Tori can help us honor her in a special way and help me feel better and more at peace with her going to heaven a lot earlier than I had wanted.

What we are asking is that everyone bring baby blankets and newborn/preemie outfits to give to the Huntsville Hospital NICU. This is where Tori was born and cared for the first few months of life and we would like to give back to them and help and encourage other families in the situation that we were in when she was born a year ago.

We recently helped raise money for the Swim for Melissa fundraiser, which we raised nearly $15oo in Tori's name to help buy equipment for premature babies and give them a better chance at life. We are also asking that you bring any loose change you have laying around and we will be "collecting change to help change a baby's life." We will be donating any change given to the Huntsville Hospital NICU as well.

Feel free to bring your children; there is a playground outside that your children can play on while you visit inside and stop by to visit with our family. We will have several special and memorable things for you to participate in and would love nothing more than for you all to help make this day special and uplifting for me and my family.

It would be VERY easy, more than you know, for this to simply be a sorrowful day and me do nothing to help her memory live on. However, I want very much to help her memory be beneficial to someone else. I have prayed several times for the Lord to use me, and us, in some way to minister and be His light to someone else in Tori's memory.

Her life was not in vain, the Lord knew her number of days on this earth, just as He knows yours and mine. I want to celebrate every single day that she was here...even when they weren't always good ones. She was important, special, a miracle and most importantly, a gift from God. That will be our theme for her celebration....that "every good and perfect gift is from above." I fully believe that, am thankful for that and want to do everything I can to honor that gift that was in my life...for 6 sweet months.

Please RSVP if you will be able to come or would like directions to where it will be held. We will be having refreshments and need to have a count of how many will be able to come. Thank you in advance for your support to the HH NICU in Tori's name.