The Giving Tree

Last night for family night David decided he wanted to read the girls his favorite book, The Giving Tree. We then talked about how we should do nice things for others because when we make others happy it makes us happy. We struggle to try to fit in a lesson for family night most of the time because of the ages of the girls. We figure if we get into the habit of doing an activity and a snack we will be able to add a lesson as the girls gain an attention span. Kadence loves the idea of family night!!

(Truthful Journal Warning)

So, reading The Giving Tree was a little bittersweet for me. I love that David wants to share his favorite book with the girls and I also love that he enjoys reading to them. It is such an important thing for children to be read to, and nobody better than dad to do it! The part that makes it a little hard for me is that when I was pregnant with our first baby, I gave David the book for Fathers Day. I knew it was his favorite and I knew he would want to pass on his love of books to his children. Unfortunately, we never got to meet our baby because the pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage at 11 weeks. (It happened just like in the movie Marley and Me.) We were young, unwed, nervous, yet so excited for our first ultrasound of our little baby. We were starting our family, who wouldn't be excited? We stared at the screen while the Dr got some measurements. He then looked at us and told us that our baby was only measuring 8 weeks and that there was no heartbeat. At first we didn't totally understand what he was telling us because we hadn't ever done this before. We quickly realized that our baby had stopped developing. He gave each of us an ultrasound picture to keep. David placed his in the back of The Giving Tree. As he turned the last page last night I saw the picture and was reminded of one of our many trials we have gone through together. (Not that I'll ever forget, just made the memory fresh in my mind) I'm so grateful that he has always been so strong and supportive, I have the best husband a girl could ask for.