Remembering Charlotte

It’s been two years since our little girl passed away. Words cannot describe the trauma, pain, and loss we experienced that dark night.
We miss Charlotte every day.
But here we are two years later with two healthy babies. Life doesn’t always give you a second chance, but we got lucky.
We are hugging Garnett and Avery a little tighter today.

This is something I wrote for Charlotte’s memorial service in December 2007:

TO CHARLOTTE:

It would be easy to mourn all the things that will never happen. Charlotte never spoke a word and she never took a step. Charlotte never tasted a banana or played in the snow.
It would be easy to mourn all the things that Ashley and I will never do as Charlotte’s parents. We will never teach her to ride a bike or tell her scary stories by a campfire. We will never be the ones she looks to for all the answers.
I am trying very hard to remember and celebrate that her short little life was perfect in a lot of ways.
Charlotte never knew anger or fear; violence or war; hunger or poverty; loneliness or despair. She never told a lie and she was never lied to.
Charlotte knew only love and warmth in a home made whole by her presence.
Charlotte made Ashley and me better people.
I like to think that every life she touched was somehow better for it.