A Picture is Worth....unimaginable....

Everyone on the planet has probably heard the phrase - "A picture is worth a thousand words", but when you come to a point in life where there will be no more pictures, as in when you have lost a child, a picture becomes priceless.  Indescribably valuable.  I have thousands, no - millions of words, but not enough pictures.

I know I am hard to shop for or get gifts for mothers day - it's a hard day for me - for us all.  This mothers day the kids (Reed and Riley) blessed me with a hand made gift.  Its a little clip board that is painted, decoupaged, special papered and stamped and it holds a picture or pictures under the clip so you can change the picture when you feel like it!  It is a wonderful present for me and exactly what I needed.

Here's my Reedo and Riley Roo in a great picture on my gift - this picture is actually from when the kids were only about 14 and Reed had traveled to Utah to play hockey - Riley lived in the lower 48 then.  A great picture.  My gift came with pictures even.

Look at the smiles!  The love and happiness in the faces of the mother/son wedding dance (three years ago today exactly).  The absolute joy of Reedo  scoring a goal as a Squirt, and even a small smile while doing homework!  (Never Reeds favorite thing).  All beautiful.  A priceless gift of memory.

In my past, pre-loss mother life I was not a huge fan of pictures - they didn't seem to matter in the "moment" of whatever we were doing to stop and make sure the camera was ready and flashy things were working right and the light wasn't glaring, etc....

But now, with this loss, comes such a great sadness that this is all we will have of him forever.  Pictures.  And never enough.  There are never enough pictures.  

Every once in a while someone will send me a picture or a video of Rye or of Rye and Reed doing funny things, or just being and it is such a joy to get those.  I cry sometimes when they come but I am overjoyed to have them.

About two weeks ago Rye's cousin Zack helped me get the pictures off of his Instagram account.  At least the ones that were appropriate for me to see, and that has his face showing".  I laughed at that as I know there are pictures that are out there that are NOT appropriate for a mother to see....they all have them!  Yes, even your kid!  I don't know what he was winning with his "3" that he is holding up but Zack said that it was one of the best nights of their lives, singing "Farmers Daughter" (one of Rye's all time favorite songs), and having fun with friends.  

Take those moments.  Take the pictures.  Cherish them.

Be Blessed and be in the pictures!