{one week ago today}

Travis and I woke up one week ago today and without hardly saying a word, we dressed in our Sunday best and drove to the mortuary to dress our little girl before having her graveside service. My aunt Diane had made the perfect dress for her that she gave to me at a baby shower just a few days earlier that we decided to dress her in. It was embroidered with little light green and pink flowers. As we were looking at Elaine Raquel's beautiful body laying there so peacefully, we noticed that on that day, Travis happened to put on a light green tie and I put on a light pink cardigan. The colors all matched exactly without us planning it and it brought a smile on our faces.

The graveside service was perfect. It had a feeling that I would predict is a feeling we will feel in Heaven. We buried her on top of my grandma Ada Elaine's grave which added I think to the sweet spirit we felt that beautiful, sunny morning.

And then as we drove away we looked back at the pieces of our heart we left there. She will always have a special place in our hearts and our family and because of her, our lives will never be the same---our love will never be the same, it has intensified.

With today being Valentine's Day, I've been thinking about what it all really means. A day with chocolate, flowers, and cards seems so insignificant to us now after recognizing how deeply our hearts have been changed and how much stronger our love is. As cheesy as it may sound, every day is Valentine's day around here and will be from here on out. Travis and I have had to rely on one another in a way that makes my heart want to burst with joy at the exact same time that it wants to crumble into a million pieces in thinking about our little girl.

This experience has changed us---it is still changing us. This experience has blessed us. This experience has elevated our love for one another forever. It's the deep kind of love that will help us weather the storms life throws at us. Travis has been so good for me through all of this and just when you think the love can't grow any stronger, it does. I am so grateful to have him as an eternal partner forever and that he is the father of our children. I know for a fact we will look back on these hard times and see the integral part that Elaine has been playing in our lives this whole time, and the blessing it is to have had this experience in our marriage.