Heaven is for Real...

Have you read this book?

If not, it's a story told by a little boy (through his father) about his trip to Heaven and back. He had to have emergency surgery due to an overlooked ruptured appendix and almost died. He tells stories about meeting God and Jesus and Gabriel the angel and all kinds of things. It's a beautiful story.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure I believed it all, but I'm starting to believe it all more and more. And I want to believe it. Especially now that baby Gwen passed away. I want to believe that she is in the special part of Heaven for children until they can be reunited with their loved ones.

In the book, the little boy mentions seeing lights coming out of people while attending mass. And seeing other phenomena that he explains as being part of Heaven or Jesus. I'm wondering how many kids see these things if they are real (which I'm hoping to believe they are).

I ask this because today was a special day for us.

This morning Annabelle fell. Not bad, and she landed on some clothes, but she fell and bumped her head. She screamed. I cried. And I called the exchange and talked to a pediatric nurse at Cardinal Glennon. They assured me she's fine. We have some things to watch, but she's been her happy smiling self all day.

That's not the point of this story.

I swapped the kids today at daycare. Dommie has been running a fever so I kept him at home and sent Annabelle in his place. I would've kept both of them out but I had class today at 1:30 and Nick's mom was willing to watch one child and I didn't want to TOTALLY abuse her and force her to watch 2 kids. (just kind of abuse her with one!). After dropping Annabelle off at Stella's (and explaining Annabelle's fall and what to watch out for), Dommie and I decided to have a good Mommy and Dommie day and go to Denny's for breakfast.

On our way home from breakfast, Dommie said, "Look Mommy! I see sissy!". I immediately turned around and said, "Where do you see Sissy?" thinking he was seeing a billboard or ad with a baby on it (he thinks a LOT of babies look like sissy). He pointed up. Well we are in a car. There's nothing up. Then he started moving his finger around the car. I asked, "What are you talking about silly? There's no one in the car but us!". He said, "Yes there is! I see Sissy! She's flying!!".

At this point, I'm remembering this book and thinking about Annabelle at daycare and knowing she hit her head. I'm kind of freaking out.

Then Dommie says, "Oh no Mama! She's flying away! We have to catch her! I can't lose Sissy!". I said, "Can we catch her? Where is she?". Then he started kind of crying and saying, "She flew away! I miss Sissy!".

So I called Stella. I was supposed to call her anyway, but this really freaked me out. She assured me that Annabelle was fine and acting normal.

Then I started thinking about it. Maybe Dominick just saw Baby Gwen.

He only met her a few times and wouldn't remember what she looked like, but maybe she remembered him for some reason. I'm not saying this is what happened. I know kids have crazy imaginations. But it was so odd.

I'd like to think that he saw Baby Gwen. And that she was happy and showing us that she's ok. Yesterday would have been her 1st birthday. Maybe she was telling all the families who prayed for her that she had a good birthday. I like to imagine that.

And I like to imagine that Heaven is for Real.

PS - Annabelle is still her happy smiling beautiful self. And her bump is gone. Thank goodness. :)