Number the stars

      Sunday came around again, and it was time for Alex to leave. I was getting anxious again about the week ahead since this time I was going to be by myself for the entire week and not have any "easing" into it like I had the week before. I told Alex that I was nervous about getting bored and backsliding, but he did what he does best and helped me make a list of all the errands I should run that week and what all plans we could make.

      One of the things I was most excited about that week was getting Kaitlyn's urn ordered. We had finally decided what we wanted, and it was a great excuse to go sit and talk to Kenney for a little while. Monday morning is when I decided to go see her, and she was genuinely happy to see me. She told me that she thought I looked great (I didn't dissolve into tears as soon as I saw her), and that she was glad we had decided on something more permanent for Kaitlyn. I showed her the picture of what we wanted, and shared with her the verse we wanted. Her response was, "That's just perfect, that's beautiful." Then Kenney started telling me more about her story and how she got in to being a funeral director (I wish I could get a recording of her telling this story, because she is just hilarious): Kenney was at home with her two boys and one of her friends from growing up had asked her to come and help him with some of the paperwork at his funeral home because it was way behind and he was losing money right and left. She agreed to come in for a few hours a couple of Saturdays, and she said she was only ever in the office portion of the location and she had never been into the embalming room. One day, the owner of the funeral home came running in to where she was working and told him he desperately needed her to do the hair and makeup of a lady he was working on and the family was going to be there in 3 hours. She, naturally, was horrified and was like, "Who can I call to help you? Cause I'm not going in there" Eventually, she gave in to his frantic pleas for help and she went and did the makeup for her first client. She said that the family was so pleased with how she looked at the service that the owner offered Kenney a permanent position being the hair and makeup girl. She said "I'll do it for 3 weeks until you find somebody else." Kenney joked that day that she was still waiting for somebody else to come do it.

       After I got done talking to Kenney and getting everything ordered for Kaitlyn, I headed back to the house. When I got home, I noticed there was something from FedEx on the porch, which was pretty weird considering I hadn't worked in about 5 weeks at this point and wasn't expecting anything from my online shopping habbit. I went and picked it up, and noticed it was something from NASA. What? Random. So I opened the packaging and the group that I had gone to training with when I started my new job had all pitched in and named a star after Kaitlyn. I completely lost it. Lost. It. If you think this was just a coincidence, you are so sadly mistaken. God had put it on somebody's heart that I hadn't even talked to in months that this was an appropriate way to honor our daughter. Let me just remind you of what I had told Kenney that morning that we had wanted to put on her urn:

Look up at the sky and consider:
    Who created these?
    The one who brings out their attendants one by one,
    summoning each of them by name.
Because of God’s great strength
    and mighty power, not one is missing.

Isaiah 40:26

      Bless it. That was one of the most phenomenal and productive cries I had that week because this was a tangible reminder that I was not forgotten, and neither was my daughter.