Christmas Balloons

Merry Christmas to all. Today that girls and I followed through with our letters and "sending" them to papa. We received a balloon kit from Joel's sister, which made it so nice to fill the balloons together and let the girls pick what colors they thought papa would want. They picked a lot of pink and purple!! So as we were getting the ballons all ready and tied to our letters and drawings, we talked about what we wanted to say. Brenna got really sad and started to cry, but she had a huge smile on her face when her balloons made it over the trees and way up into the sky. Faith just had a huge smile and knew that papa was going to love her letters and drawings, she wrote it all herself with my help to spell. I will miss the day when she starts writing her own and I won't know what her thoughts were to him. The strangest thing happened when we walked outside though. I need to give some background first so you can understand the story. A few years ago, we all went to a birds of prey show at a Garden here in GA. We loved it and went quite a bit to it. Joel's favorite bird to see was the Falcon. He just loved the falcon and was amazed by it. The last Christmas we had with him, we walked outside and we saw this falcon(not a common site in town) sitting in the tree in our neighbors front yard. We looked and looked and just stood there for a few minutes, the bird was so close but he did not move, then finally he flew off. We did not see it again for a long time, then the day Joel was leaving for Iraq after r and r, we were getting in the car and there in that same tree was the falcon again. WE just looked at eachother and said, that is so weird. Never really thinking about it. After Joel died, I think I forgot about the bird for a long time. Then last year in the spring, I saw the bird a few times in a row, twice in my neighbors tree where it always was, then once in the backyard in my tree. It was so strange, but at the same time so comforting. It always made me feel as if Joel was a part of that with me. Who knows, maybe he was. Well today, when we were going outside to let the ballons go, sitting in the tree next to our house, there was a falcon, he took off when we were walking in the yard and flew over the house twice, then was gone. It was so strange and all I could say to the girls was, there is a Falcon, papa's favorite bird. To see that bird, in this area(we have moved since I last saw the falcon) was so strange and certainly not common. However, it made me feel calm. Who knows, maybe my Joel is with me when I spot that bird. So our christmas has ended on a good note. We have made it through in one peice and better for the wear. Merry Christmas to All!