Yesterday, I wanted to take some Easter pictures of the kids before we left for Maryland for the weekend. The problem though is that while I have four children, I don't actually have one of them.  For this reason I have avoided family pictures like the plague since losing Abigail. I didn't even take a picture of the kids together in their Christmas outfits before Church, something I always do. I don't know when I will be ready for a real family picture. Mostly because I must some how include her, but I haven't figured out how. So I decided to buy a simple pink balloon, an idea I stumbled across on Pinterest, to represent her. I took about a billion pictures (at least 40) before a had a few cute ones. One of these days in all my free time I am going to learn to take great photos of the kids.

Afterward, I had thought we would let it go. The kids wanted to know if the Abigail balloon would make it all the way to Abigail. We have talked in the past about sometimes people send balloons off at funerals with messages. And they wanted to write her a message on her balloon.  So we all signed it, and they all drew smiley faces. Ruth added eyelashes and a heart to her's "since Abigail is a girl."  I didn't tell them that scientifically speaking the thing would float awhile and eventually land somewhere, probably be a problem in nature, but I also didn't tell them that she would receive their message.  The four of us held it together and Britt counted down to let it go.  We watched it drift away off toward Lake  Okeechobee. Ruth said she missed the Abigail balloon. Britt said he missed Abigail. Rebecca just said yeah. And I agreed.