Beauty made from Ashes

We were filled with joy when we found out that we were pregnant with our 2nd child! I remember holding Corbyn, our older son of 2 and a half years at the time, and we cut into a gender reveal cake finding out that we were indeed going to have a boy! When Rylen was born, our life was perfect, and our family was complete.

I was so excited to plan Rylen’s 1st Birthday Party. I had made his 1 year banner to go around his little table, and ordered his smash cake, all while organizing all the other details of food and family gathering. I remember Rylen eating his birthday cake and saying with his newly discovered voice “num num,” as he ate the delicious icing! Truly it was a perfect day filled with so many memories, ones that will forever be ingrained in my mind and heart forever… but sadly, Rylen would never get to celebrate another birthday.

A little over a month later after his 1st Birthday, Rylen woke up with a fever while Travis, my husband who is a pilot, was out flying. I was able to get Rylen some medicine to temporarily break his fever, until my mother in law took Rylen into the doctors that day, while I went to work teaching and Corbyn went to daycare. The news that it was a virus and to just let him rest and stay hydrated was what …