A Visit With Our Liv'ster...

To continue on with our journey from WA to GA, we made a pit stop in Indy (our hometown). While we were there, we made sure to visit our daughter's grave several times. Since we chose to bury her close to family -- knowing that we would be constantly moving around with the military, we felt that this would be the best choice -- we wanted to take every opportunity that we could to see her while we were in town.

Our first visit was a rough one. It was the first time that Livy's daddy was able to visit since the funeral back in December, and the first time that I was able to visit since ordering the headstone. There were many tears, hugs, and loving comments being said to our sweet baby girl. We miss her so much, and this particular visit just made it hit home all that much more. Standing there, knowing that our baby girl was gone forever -- knowing that this was the only way that we would ever be able to spend time with her from now on...It was a hard night. We made sure to tell our little Olivia how much she was loved and missed...

I will forever remember the emotions of that night, and the look on James' face while he quietly sat and stared at Liv's grave. I know he misses her more than anything in this world, and this was the first time in nearly 10 months that he was able to express those emotions wholeheartedly. Thanks to the Army, he was forced to push all of that aside immediately following her funeral and jump right back into battle mode in Afghanistan, so I'm glad we were able to visit at the time that we did!

Here are a few pictures from that night...

We spent a good amount of time there that night and didn't leave until after dark. We knew that we would be back again the next day, so our goodbyes were a bit easier this time around...

Due to a crazy day of visiting with friends and family, it wasn't until after dark on the next night that we were able to break away again to go see Liv. We later regretted it, but we opted to wait until the next day to visit, since the cemetery would be pitch black. So fast forwarding to the day after, we made sure to stop at the store for some flowers, then we headed on over to see our baby girl...

While I set up the vase, James took apart the wrapping and prepared the flowers...

While taking a few pictures, I noticed off to the side that James was forming a heart over Livy's grave with the shadow of his hands. I thought it was too sweet not to capture...

Later, while walking around her grave, we noticed the written names (and dates) of our other two on the back of Liv's flowers. These were placed at her grave by her Oma, who was so thoughtful as to add our other two. Since Jacob and Jordan are without any kind of grave, she continues to add them at Livy's in little ways...

Throughout the rest of our stay in Indianapolis, we continued to visit Livy every chance we got. If this was the only way that we could be with her, we were going to take full advantage of this opportunity!

We miss you so much, Olivia! Love you, baby girl!