All Natural

Logan and I had the opportunity to babysit my brother's little Lily a few days ago when they went to the USA vs. Honduras game.  As soon as they dropped her off Logan took right over and was so cute with her.  She loved watching Baby Einstein with her Uncle Logan and if he wasn't holding her, she would sit on the ground and watch his every move, including whenever he left the room.  It made me so happy to see Logan have so much fun with her.  He is definitely a natural when it comes to the kiddos!

We have received two incredible personalized drawings since Eli passed away that are honestly too amazing to describe.  I attempted to take a picture of them so everyone else can get an idea of how wonderful they are but the quality isn't great.  The first one has such a neat story to go along with it.  The woman who drew this picture saw Eli's obituary in the newspaper one day and felt impressed to draw him according to what she thought he'd look like as a little boy.  She said she felt his spirit so strong while she was drawing it that she had to stop because she was crying so hard.  She drew him in a white shirt and tie because missionary work is likely one of his biggest focuses right now.  I was speechless when I saw it because it truly does look just like him even though we never saw him that old.  I know she was inspired while she drew this picture because I see Eli all the way in it.  She drew this picture, wrote us a letter and dropped it off at the cemetery and asked them to give it to us without leaving any contact information.  I hope one day I will be able to personally thank whoever gave us this incredible gift.

The second drawing came from the sister of some wonderful friends of ours.  Once again, the artist's ability to capture Eli so perfectly completely amazed me.  It may be difficult to see in this picture but his face in this drawing is almost identical to what he really looked like.  The mouth, hair and cheeks look exactly like our baby boy.  I think my favorite part of this drawing is Eli holding Jesus' finger.  I can practically feel the love coming from this picture!

Earlier this week I went to lunch with several of the SCID moms that live in the area.  Talk about an amazing group of women!  They are all such insightful people.  I had such a fun time visiting with these ladies and can't wait to do it again soon! **Beginning July 1st (I'm pretty sure that's the date) Utah will officially have a newborn screening for SCID!  This is fantastic news considering it greatly increases the baby's chance of survival if it's caught early on.  Many thanks to all of those that have made this happen--including some of those women that were at lunch with us on Tuesday.  Thank you, thank you!**

For those of you that weren't able to make it to Eli's viewing or Funeral, I am uploading the following video for you to see.  A friend of ours made it for us and did a fantastic job capturing many of the memories we have with our little guy.