Thursday, April 23, 2009

God Gave Us Heaven

When Ben's Grandma Anne passed away a few months ago our good friends Kim, Rebecca and Dakota gave the boys a gift card to go pick out a book or two from Barnes and Nobles in memory of their Great Grandma. Many of the books in our library are from "Granma Anne". (This is how she always signed the books for the boys.) I thought this was such a wonderful idea so that they would have another memento of their Great Grandma. Ben and I picked these two books out for them. I would love to say it was fun to read these to the boys and it was a little bit but I also cried in the store just trying to pick them each a book that would explain where Grandma is now.

Charlie still talks about her from time to time and Sawyer points to her picture a lot. A few days before we went shopping Charlie started asking me a series of questions about Grandma. They caught me off guard a bit and I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. He said, "How did Grandma get to Heaven?" and "How does she not fall out?" :) Those are tough questions that don't have really easy answers. I tried my best to keep my answers simple and assured him that Grandma loves it there and Jesus won't let her fall.

I just wanted to share this post in case any of you ever need an idea for a family that looses a loved one. What a wonderful memento for a young child. Thank you Nguyen Family!

3 comments:

The Ballard Family said...

Amanda, what sweet mememories the kids will have of their grandma. Hopefully that love of reading will continue years from now. We have two other books by that author-God gave us you, and God gave us Christmas. Very good books. Sounds like you are doing well in answering tough questions.

The Van Vactor family said...

oh i love this. I have often thought of how to teach macy about my dad and where he is. this makes me want to cry and I will def. get the book!!

dianne and bob said...

One of my dearest pictures on my refrig is of Granma Anne reading to one of the boys. I do appreciate the wonderful idea of a gift certificate for a book. In fact, I will do the same thing for my kids who lost three grandparents in 2007. We are still reeling from that. Now that I think of it. When my grandmother died, I used a gift of money to buy the series of 20+ Great Books.
Take a pat on the back for your concern and guidance of the boys through their grieving.