A New Way To Celebrate Life

As most of you know, after my mom passed away on January 27, 2009, I planted a memorial tree in her honor in Kyle, Texas. The first couple years the tree was alive, I was living in Kyle/Buda & could nuture it and watch it grow. Now that is not the case... By the grace of God (yes, we are thankful for this lifestyle!), God has called us to be a military family. We probably will not have the opportunity to live near the tree again for another 15-20 years (if ever),  so we've decided to make some changes! This is simply a new way to celebrate her life!

 Here's the tree right Mother's Day 2009...just a few months after planting it!

Trevor and I go by and see the tree everytime we are in Buda and it was doing well until this winter. We started noticing that the leaves were falling off and of course we just thought it was winter...unfortunately it was not. As spring arrived, nothing changed with the tree and I knew deep down that it was dying. I was not ready to accept the fact that the tree could die, so I just continued watering it when we came in town and asking for others to help us water while we're gone. It became obvious that this tree was not meant to live for whatever reason and I was devestated. It made me so incredibly anxious to think of digging the tree up.

(The night we decided to dig up the tree... I couldn't let Trevor do it...he was so patient and we decided to wait until the next morning)

Trevor, being the wonderful husband that he is, had a great idea! He suggested that we dig out the tree and take the soil (where we scattered her ashes) and take the soil home with us to plant a garden. He said we could use a small amount of the soil to plant a garden at each home we have as we travel the world. I immediately knew that was the PERFECT thing to do because my mama always told me that when I got married someday and I moved away, she would follow us and live next door wherever we lived. Well mama, get ready for the adventure of a lifetime...you always said you wanted to see the world ;)

These are pics of the process... I found it very therapeutic to see the roots of the tree where life had begun to form since my mom went to be with the Lord. I never imagined that the tree would be so deeply rooted so quickly. Then we put all of the soil in a bucket with the tree broken into pieces, I haven't decided what to do with the branches yet, but they represent life to me...Let me know if anyone has ideas! The last picture is what the spot looks like without the tree. I am in the process of having a friend of mine create a memorial sign for the location... this will always be a significant place in my life. The place where my mom came to know the Lord (groundbreaking location of our old church) and next to the funeral home where we celebrated her life full of JOY!

We are starting the creation of "Patt's Garden" in our backyard this weekend... another blog with pics to follow!

**Grief is a life long process... God doesn't promise that there won't be pain, He just promises that He will carry us through it!**