Love, Sullivan (2013)

As we prepare for Sullivan's 4th birthday in heaven, we are again asking you to join in and honor his memory by doing an act of kindness.

June 12th is now less than 2 weeks away!  We have 125 people in the facebook event committed to doing this with us!

Please join in, you can post here or on the facebook group about your act of kindness.

1. Mow the neighbor's lawn
2. Cut flowers from your garden and deliver to someone
3. Slow down and let someone merge/pull out in traffic
4. Play a game with your kids that you usually wouldn't (like Lucky Ducks. Most annoying game ever!)
5. Take extras from your pantry to a food pantry.
6. Drop off your gently used baby items at a shelter or pregnancy center.
7. Wash your spouse's car windows
8. Send an e-card to someone who needs cheered up
9. Deliver a thank you card to your dentist, hair stylist, secretary, union hall, pastor, or favorite local eatery.
10. Visit a cemetery and look for flowers that have fallen over, stand them back up at the grave.

1. Go to a drive-thru for the purpose of paying for the person behind you (this is SUPER fun!  The most expensive I've ever had was $7, most are $3 or less).
2. Go in a gas station and pay for the next person to get a soda.
3. Take a magazine to a friend who is stuck at home a lot (elderly, someone with chronic illness, a new mom)
4. Take a boquet of flowers from the grocery store and start passing them out (in the store, at a park, at the mall)
5. Buy a starbucks gift card, go in and wait for someone to come in. Hand them the card and leave.
6. Take cold bottled water to road crews, a construction site, etc.
7. Bring a tray of homemade cookies to your librarians.
8. Visit a local toy store, buy a gift card, and leave it, asking them to give it to the next person who checks out.
9. Take scrapbook supplies to any local hospital with a NICU (they make pages for the parents and decorate the baby's beds)
10. Stop at a children's lemonade stand and buy a cup...or ten.  :)  

1. Stand at the gas station and when a car pulls up behind you, let them know that this tank of gas is on you.
2. Visit a restaurant, sit and order a coffee.  When you're done, leave a $20 bill for a tip.
3. Purchase boxes of Drumstick ice creams and go drop them off at your firestation
4. Contribute materials to a group taking a work trip to areas affected by natural disasters.
5. Pack a care package for a soldier
6. While at the grocery store, pay for the person in front of you when they get ready to check out.
7. Support teachers and schools through Donor's Choose.  In particular, schools in Joplin, Missouri are still trying to recover from the effects of the tornadoes.  Here is a link to all the schools asking for help in Joplin. 
8. Give a flock of chickens through Heifer International ($20).
9. Help end deaths caused by malaria.  Nothing But Nets can provide a life saving net for a family for just $10.
10. Pay off someone's bill.  You can stop in your local electric office, water office, mechanic's shop, anywhere!  Tell them you want to pay off someone's bill!

Finally, our two favorite charities at this time of year:
Molly Bears: 

They provide bears for bereaved mothers.  The bears are custom created to weigh the same as your baby weighed.  My Sullivan Ronny bear weighs 7lb, 4oz.  It is SO special!  We love to donate to Molly Bears so that other mommies can have the same comfort.  Bears cost about $45 for Molly Bears to make and ship, but you can donate ANY amount, AND they accept paypal!

March of Dimes:

Most are familiar with this organization that provides support to NICU moms and funds research and programs to prevent premature birth.  While Sullivan was not NICU or premature birth, we support March of Dimes.  If we can help one family NOT have to experience what we have, it is worth it.

Thank you for your support and for helping Sullivan leave his mark on the world by doing acts of kindness in his honor!

Coming soon--Love, Sullivan (2013)

Are you all ready to do your act of kindness of Sullivan's birthday this year!  I've got a post coming up soon with more details and LOTS of ideas of acts of kindness!

Love, Sullivan (his 3rd birthday)

In honor of Sullivan's 3rd birthday, please consider joining in and doing an act of kindness on June 12th.  

Sullivan would be turning 3 on June 12, 2012. Instead of having a party for him at home, he's having his party in Heaven. To honor him and celebrate his life, I'm asking that everyone do an act of service on his birthday. It doesn't have to be big or expensive. Just something kind done for someone else in honor of Sullivan. Do your act of kindness on his birthday and then post here OR ON FACEBOOK with what you did. Sullivan's birthday is an emotional time for us, but seeing all the good done in his honor will make the day a little easier. We had great success with this last year, here are some things that were done to give you ideas: --donate toys to church nursery --cut the grass for your neighbor or a single mom --drop off a fruit basket or brownies to the Labor and Delivery room of your local hospital --buy the soda for the person behind you at the gas station  --pay for the person behind you at the drive thru --Leave an extra large tip when eating out --pass out popsicles in the neighborhood --take baby items to the Crisis Pregnancy Center --clean out dad's car --donate to March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Samaritan's Purse, etc ************************************************ Please invite your friends to this event. I'd love to have people we don't even know doing things for Sullivan. ***********************************************

32 months

It has been 32 months since we said hello and goodbye to Sullivan. It seems like an odd anniversary, the first month and sixth month and two years and all those kind of times you would EXPECT to feel down.

But for whatever reason, month 32 hasn't been coming up roses.

I miss him.

Really looking forward to doing the Love, Sullivan event again this year for his birthday and hope you all will join us! I will make a facebook group again, closer to time.

In the meantime, please keep sharing Sullivan's story and life with your friends. Keep passing around this blog link. I want my Sullivan to be known and remembered. For Month 32 all the way to month 30,000,000. :)

Love, Sullivan

If you are here from the Love, Sullivan facebook event, this post is for you! First, a big:

Second, if you want to post what act of service/kindness you did in honor of Sullivan's Second Birthday, you can do so in the comments here or on facebook (or both!).

The day will be a hard one for me. I'll get through it by stopping by and reading everyone's sweet comments and knowing that Sullivan continues to touch lives, even from his spot in Heaven!

image: ©1998 Shannon Wirrenga, www.shannonsartroom.com
(Thank you Shannon!!)

PS--If you don't know what facebook event I'm talking about, it and the details are here.

Welcome to Sullivan's Story

Welcome to the website! Hopefully you're here because you were the recipient of one of our random acts of kindness and have followed the web address on the card to this website. We created this so that people can hear about our sweet Sullivan and about our Savior.

You can read the parts to the story in any order you wish, but if you'd like to read from the start to finish, here are the titles and the links for you.



The Pregnancy

Finding Out

Telling People

Labor

Meeting Sullivan

The Funeral

Strong

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave comments, we'd love to hear how your life was touched by Sullivan.

Strong

Some would say we got no miracle. Our baby died. I say we got a miracle. It wasn't that our baby lived. It is that he died and we survived.

Over the course of this journey so many people have told me how strong I am. And they are right. But I want you to know HOW I am strong. WHY I have been able to deliver a dead baby, bury my child, and still get up in the morning.

No one would have blamed me if I had shut myself in the closet and refused to come out. Oh I have cried in the closet. In the car. In the bathroom. In the living room. At the cemetery. At the scrapbook store. At the grocery store. At church. In Sunday School. At doctor's offices. You name the place, I've cried there.
But I get back up.

Somehow through the darkest of nights and bleakest of days, I've always gotten back up.


Here's how I've been able to do it.

Jesus.

Because I accepted that he took the place on the cross and died for MY sins, I have assurance that one day when my time comes, I'll be reunited with him in heaven. Him and all my beloved family members who accepted him. And Sullivan. Babies aren't old enough to make a choice to accept Christ, so they ALL go to heaven. This life on earth doesn't last long. I know soon enough I will be able to see and kiss my baby boy again. Without the assurance of a Savior who conquered death, I don't know where I'd be.

If you want to know more about Jesus or how to become a Christian, please seek out a Christian church in your area, a minister, or you can even post comments here and I'll do my best to answer them. If I don't know an answer, I can find you someone who does.

This life will end soon. I'll be spending eternity with my baby and my family. Where will you be?

Some references for you:

Romans 5:8 (New International Version)
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 10:9 (New International Version)
"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

John 11:25 (New International Version)
"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;"

Another resource for you is here, this page explains what the plan of salvation is.