December 23rd. The date that strikes like a bolt of
lightening cutting through my heart and leaving nothing but a puddle of tears and frazzled nerves behind. December 23, 2012 was Stella’s 2nd
birthday. The date also marks two years
since I last held her in my arms praying to some Higher Power to give her the
strength to prove everyone wrong. She
had inherited my stubborn streak and I wanted so badly for that quality to be
her saving grace. Stella did all her
tiny, broken hearted body would allow, but after one hour and forty-seven
minutes her body couldn’t keep up. One
hour and forty-seven minutes to be loved, held, caressed, kissed and beg for
her future!
It’s been nearly a
month since then, but even though I knew I wanted to write about Stella’s Day
my heart was filled with too much hurt, disappointment and anger to
articulately express my feelings. You
see, Stella’s 2nd Birthday wasn’t as I had hoped. Instead of feeling
the support and love of my family and friends, my family closest to me acted as
if it was any other day of the week! The
real kicker was I had more of my family with me for Stella’s 2nd
birthday than at her birth or 1st birthday, but not a single one
ever bothered to even acknowledge Stella on her day! No comments what-so-ever!! They acted like this was just another typical
holiday gathering of family rather than the special day I had planned in
celebration of Stella’s short life and honor her memory. Sadly, I, along with a community of Baby Loss Mommas whom I've never even met, were the only
ones honoring my first born daughter by keeping Stella in their heart!
Like last year, we
planned a silly Christmas comedy bus tour for the celebratory nature. After all, if Stella were still with us we
would be having fun, smiling, laughing and celebrating. The plan was to then drive up to the Parkway
at dusk and honor our daughter by releasing a sky lantern over the French Broad River and then all share a birthday
dinner with our loved ones. My first
disappointment came weeks before while we were still in the planning
stages. Someone I love very much was
coming to town for the holidays, but had no interest in joining us for Stella’s
birthday. I guess celebrating a family member’s
birthday wasn’t their idea of fun and the concept of supporting someone you
love never crossed their mind? Though I
can’t say I was surprised by this, it upset me greatly! I debated changing our plans and trying to
find some activity that was more likely to suit their ideals, but deep down I
knew I could change everything and them still choose to abstain from Stella’s
day. I decide to focus only on what
mattered most to me … Stella and our immediate family honoring and showering
her with our love.
On December 23rd,
along with a few close family members, we set our plans in motion only for me
to quickly realize no one wanted to be there.
The sting of loneliness within the presence of others set in as I
thought about everyone’s behavior.
Again, I tried to chug along and focus on my sweet Stella and the day’s
activities. As we moved closer to dusk
the complaints started rolling in. Once
again I was put in a position to “fix” everything for others, rather then
anyone thinking about my daughter or I on this difficult day. We drove to our spot to prepare for our
lantern release where we met up with a couple of other family members who were
unable to join us for most of the day.
The sky lantern release was a complete failure! The temperatures were dropping, the wind was
shifting and Trey and I were emotional, so we misjudged when to light and
release the lantern causing it to never gain the loft needed to soar through
the sky and we watched it slowly drop down in to the water. It felt like another sign ~ even the Universe
didn’t care about honoring Stella! Feeling
extremely defeated and sad, we left the release spot to meet up with our dinner
companions only to realize they had already decided the day had been too long,
so they were on their way back home. The
special birthday dinner to honor my precious daughter wasn’t important enough
for them to stick around for? The hurt and sadness quickly made way to
anger! How can someone who loves you
have so little respect for your feelings?
My appetite had left, so the birthday dinner plans crumbled away with my
emotions and we went home. No cake. No candle.
Just more tears!
While still trying
to wrap my head around exactly what took place and what didn’t, I received a
phone call from the bailers. I made my
feelings fairly clear, though for the life of me I can’t remember exactly what
I said. (This is always an indication that my stress level is through the roof
and my nerves are shot!) With their poor
attempt at an apology came a comment I will never forget ~ “It’s morbid to put
Iza through this sadness year after year.
She’s too young now, but you can’t keep doing this to her!”. So not only does my family not grasp how
important it is to me to acknowledge and honor Stella, it’s morbid and wrong
for me to expose my Rainbow Baby to her big sister’s memory???
It’s safe to say
at that point I no longer wanted anything to do with any of them any more! If they couldn’t acknowledge my first born
daughter, why should I allow them to be involved with my second born? Instead we should just plan on spending each
and every one of Stella’s birthdays and Christmas seasons with just the 3 of us
somewhere far away from their interference and negativity! I’ve cast my votes for Maui
from December 20 – January 2nd each year! But now I’m stuck with the guilt of having a
daughter here on Earth who wouldn’t get to spend her holidays with her extended
family. Is that fair to her? No, but it’s not fair to Stella to be
forgotten either!
So for the next 11
months I’ll be hashing this over non-stop trying to figure out what is right
for us. For Stella! Why does this have to be so difficult? Why can’t we celebrate her like we would any
other child? Why can’t my family and
friends support me and help make an already painful situation better? Will this ever get any easier? Obviously I don’t have the answers, though I
sure wish I did!
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| Stella's Dragonfly Balloon |
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| Releasing Stella's Balloon ~ New Years Day 2013 |
