A Way to Honor and Remember

After I wrote yesterday's post, I sat down to really think about what we should to for Joshua's birthday.

I don't want to have a social gathering of some sort. I don't want to be a blubbering fool in front of people.

I do want to spend the day with my family. Remember, looking at pictures, and doing something special with the kids to help them remember.

But I also want to give others, who love Joshua, an opportunity to remember and honor him. There were so many who loved him, were affected by his life, and who knew him- either personally or through my blog.

All of a sudden, an idea came to mind.

I want to open my blog up. I want to allow others to share their thoughts about Joshua and his life. I want others to help remember and honor him.

Joshua lived from August 16 to October 6. 51 days. I have every single day of his life recorded on this blog (except for 2 that I removed and will not be reposting.)

I would love to fill those days that he lived, a whole year ago, with letters of love and remembrance from those who loved him the most.

I already have a handful of people who are working on letters or posts about him. I want to open that opportunity up to you as well.

If you feel led, I would love for you to write a guest post, a letter, a remembrance, a testimony about how Joshua impacted your life and email it to me. Include identifying information about yourself and also tell me how much info you would like me to share about you. I am happy to post links to your blog if you want me to.

I will start posting your letters/posts on August 16th all the way through October 6th.

I will also donate all of the earnings during that time period from my BlogHer contract/ads to the NICU at Joshua's hospital. I would love to be able to help them purchase photo paper and/or a new digital camera to use within the NICU. Some of the pictures that the NICU took of Joshua are our most precious. I know they go through photo paper and digital cameras like crazy- I want to make sure the families of critically ill babies have plenty of pictures of their little ones.

So, I want you to think about it. If you feel led to share your thoughts about our precious little man, please email your posts to jillhaskins1@yahoo.com. (I reserve the right to pick and choose posts to publish and will not publish posts that are controversial or attacking.)

I'm excited to share these upcoming days with you. There are so many of you who have been an amazing support to our family over the past 9 months. There are so many of you who loved Joshua in a way that I could never imagine. I am so excited about sharing this journey with you as we honor and remember Joshua's life.