Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of our friends and family! We hope that this day finds you all well and happy. We have had a busy day with Aunt Rita, Uncle Mike, and cousins Clare and Greg. We were so glad that they could come visit from North Carolina and we have had a wonderful weekend. They leave tomorrow and I am not sure what the kids are going to do! It was so much fun dressing the kiddos up for Mass. Emily was a beautiful picture in her white dress, Matthew looked like a little man, and James was so sweet in his little Feltman Brothers outfit. Here is a picture of them after Mass:

Of course, there were some difficult moments this weekend. Last year, Easter fell right after Luke's surgery. He was taken off of the vent on Holy Saturday and we were able to see him awake on Easter. What a wonderful gift that was! I remember bringing an Easter basket to the CVICU and hoping that Luke would be able to play with his toys one day. Unfortunately, Luke was not able to play with them here on earth, but I know he has much better toys up in heaven! I wanted to post the message that Tommy wrote last year on Easter...it gave me a lot of great memories of our angel:

Well, it was another GREAT Easter. Bernie and I went to the hospital this morning to visit Luke. We delivered the basket left by the Easter Bunny. He wasn't too interested in any of the toys yet, but I'm sure he will be soon.
Luke continues to make wonderful progress. We talked to one of the cardiologists on-call, and he said Luke is doing great!! We heard him cry today, which was a nice sound to hear. You can tell he's a fighter. As you can see in some of the pictures, they have taken out his breathing tube, so we can really see his beautiful face now. He should also have most, if not, all of his lines taken out tomorrow. That is a huge step for several reasons, but one of the biggest is that we can hold him again. What a feeling that will be!!
We also had an excellent dinner at Gramma and Grampa's house, with Nana, Uncle Rob and Aunt Maggie and their family and Aunt Katie and her children (Uncle Tom had to go back to Minnesota today).
Happy Easter to all of you...what a blessed day!

Thank you for letting me share that. It was such a wonderful day for us and we are so thankful that God allowed us to have that beautiful boy with us, even for a short time. As I said, I had a number of emotions this weekend, mostly wanting all four of our babies with us here on earth. It is still extremely difficult for me to face the fact that I won't ever hold Luke on earth ever again. Luke was buried in his Easter outfit, the one I had bought before he was born, expecting to take a sweet two-week old to Mass with us. He is wearing it in the family picture on this page.

I fear the things that I am "forgetting" about Luke: the way his skin felt, his smell, the sound of his cry. As his Angel Day approaches, I fear the reaction I will have. Will I cry all day? Will I spend all day anticipating the time we gave him to God? I think that the anticipation is a lot more difficult than the actual day. Once again., I have a favor to ask: please take a minute or two on Saturday, April 18th to remember our boy. If you could, please say a prayer for him and for all of his angel friends. Please say a prayer for all of the babies and children who are still fighting CHDs, including Lindsay, Teagan, Owen, Carlie, Patrick, Khloe, Steven Joseph and our niece Megan. CHDs affect way too many children and we need to find a cure!

I pray that you all are doing well on this wonderful day. Thank you to Jesus for dying so that we many live. We are so thankful that our baby boy an live in paradise with Jesus and all the angels and saints. God bless you all!