Mommy's Little Man

I told myself that I would write this blog entry the day after Brett's Celebration - April 19th. Well as you can see, it is three weeks later. I totally crashed and burned after his celebration - yes for three weeks. I found myself sitting on the couch again, not wanting to move or do anything. Not even to socialize with friends, which is not a common occurrence for me. I think after the hustle and bustle or getting things organized and prepared for two months and it finally coming to the date and having it done and gone was hard to wrap myself around the thought that I had nothing to focus on but my grief.

But on this eve of Mother's Day, I find myself wanting to write. Not sure why, but God works in mysterious ways.

The rain had poured for three days prior to Brett's Celebration, but the day of could not been any more beautiful. The weather was about 76 degrees and windy. She I could have done without the rain, but I would take it over the rain, at least the wind would not stop this beautiful day of remembrance.

I started my morning off by going to church and listening to beautiful songs song by people of various ages and to great sermon. After the service, my family, Chris, Andrew, Danielle and myself joined Stonebridge United Methodist Church. Myself and the children were baptized and to my surprise I felt some sense of strength during the baptism. I devoted myself to God and am leaning on Him to help me with this devastating experience that I was chosen to have.

I headed home after feeling a sense of peace and telling myself to focus on what this day means for me and my family. I help set up tables, chairs (donated by Bounce House of McKinney), red table clothes and photo centerpieces for the 150+ plus guests that we were expecting. Below is just one of the 10 centerpieces we had made. My sweet little man:


At about 2:00 p.m. we had lots of family and friends arriving for this Celebration of Brett's Life. At the tender age of four, he truly impacted so many lives. The most things people remember about Brett is his smile and his eyes. He was a handsome little boy with an infectious smile. You couldn't help but smile back.

We were blessed to have the main course donated by a local restaurant Chicken Express. Stan, the owner provided seven pans of chicken, buckets of gravy and 3 pans of his delicious rolls. The corn and potatoes and desserts were made my Jessica Donato and her parents Kathy and Loren. Truly an unbelievable spread.

As the children played on the bounce house donated by Hip-Hop Bounce Co. and the swing set they laughed, ran and just had some good old fashion fun. I sat and observed the children and told myself that Brett would be proud. At times I could imagine him right out there with all his friends.

Shortly before the Celebration was to come to an end we did a wonderful tribute to Brett. As the song "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me was playing everyone received a red balloon with a piece of paper attached to it. All friends and family were able to right a personal message to send to Brett. I am certain Brett received all of these messages. Below is a picture of everyone holding their balloons before the prayer and the release.

Chris, Andrew, Danielle and myself released first:

And then everyone else. What a beautiful site to see 150 red balloons floating through the sky - I can imagine it's just like angels flying.

I had a couple of people that were not at the Celebration tell me that they saw the balloons and loved it, not even knowing what it was for.

Brett's Blessings toy drive was a huge success! Not only did all of our friends and family come with bags full of toys to the Celebration but SUMC and Adventure Kids were drop off locations in McKinney and I received several toys from out of state friends and family. Thank you to everyone for making the first year of Brett's Blessings so amazingly wonderful. I have not counted the toys just yet as I still had a few come in, but I would guess we have between 400-500 toys. When I tag all the toys with Brett's Blessings I will do a count and let you all know, but for now you can look for yourself. My dining room is packed.

I would like to take this time to do a couple more shout outs. Thank you to Heather and Laura and the parents of Brett's preschool class at Sunshine Kids at SUMC for donating the drinks. Thank you to Ann for doing a beautiful job on the invitations. Thank you to my hood girls (Tami, Andrea, Ann, Maureen, Nichole, Dina and Kim) for helping put together the Brett's Blessings insert and stuffing envelopes. Thank you to Meredith and Jon, Shelly and JD for helping fight the wind and taping table clothes on the table and blowing up 150 balloons. Thank you JD for the awesome sound system for the music. And last, but not least, to my friend and guardian angel that has kept myself and my family grounded since the accident occurred. Christie. You are truly an inspiration to me and to all that know you. Thank you for everything. Thank you for the late night talks. Thank you for putting up with my rants, my anger, my sadness and my many stresses about this Celebration.

Thank you to all of you for being such awesome friends and the support you have given me and will continue to give through this difficult year ahead of me. Love to you all.