A Tree To Remember

5 years ago after we lost our daughter Zoe, we held a memorial service for her in our backyard. It was such a sweet time with family and friends. It was late October of 2004 and we planted a tree in her memory in our backyard. We picked the tree because of it's name, October Glory. It's a beautiful maple tree that turns bright orange and red in the fall. I loved that tree. Unfortunately it died not long before we moved. I was really sad because I really wanted to have it transplanted to the new house that we were building, but that wasn't meant to be. Fast forward to August of 2007 and I am at our new house (we hadn't moved in yet) because I wanted to water the plants that they had already planted. That summer we had a heat wave like no other and we were in a drought so I snuck over at night and watered the plants and the trees. As I was walking back to turn the hose off in the driveway I saw a little piece of paper on the ground. I didn't really know what it was until I bent down to pick it up. It was a tag that had fallen off the 2 trees in the front yard that the landscapers had planted a week earlier. I looked down and you guessed it. The tag read, "October Glory Maple Tree". I couldn't believe. God had given me not one tree, but two October Glory trees. Oh how good He is! He knew that my desire was to have a tree at our new house that would remind me of my sweet baby girl.

I have never needed an excuse to love fall. It's my favorite time of the year, especially living in Tennessee. The colors you see are just so amazingly beautiful. Now every time I walk out my front door and see these 2 trees I can think of my little Zoe. Oh how I miss you everyday.