Celebrating, Remembering, and Learning...

With the beginning of June comes a day that the kids look forward to every year - - Daddy Mason's birthday. It's a little different than the rest of the birthdays we celebrate throughout the year...since he no longer resides on this earth, but in spirit in the world beyond this one, we send the celebration upwards. Balloons ascend through the clouds, with three little ones watching and imagining their Daddy Mason receiving the colorful presents with joy.

This year was no different.
We went to purchase balloons, then the kids colored pictures to attach to them.
It was great fun for them.

Ben drew a picture of our family celebrating the special day. The big one is me, apparently. He even wrote my name there, to the left. I think it technically says 'WOW' but I know he meant 'MOM.'
After all, they pretty much mean the same thing.
He just barely started drawing people recently and I love it.
(By the way, now that he is drawing more, and even starting to write letters, it is solidified - - he's a lefty!)

Bethany's picture - - she drew the earth, with her and Daddy Mason in the middle.
She asks a lot about when Christ comes again and how it will be to live and be with Daddy Mason again. I think she looks forward to getting to know this guy she has heard so much about. :)

Close up.
So sweet.
(I love how she made his hair big and floppy. The picture she has in her room of him is one of his senior pictures...back in his Matt Damon days...floppy hair and all!)

James and his picture!
He drew a picture of Jesus and a dog.
Considering James' understanding that both Jesus and Reggie, our neighbor dog who passed away, live in heaven, he must have wanted to draw a picture of those among whom Mason is currently residing. I like it.

To celebrate their Daddy Mason's birthday, the kids went ahead and gave him the gift of looking down on their wide range of mortal moods and behaviors.
Fighting.

Laughing.

Ready to go.

It is always so darn hot on his birthday! Haha...his mom is reading this thinking, "You're telling me." I have never had a baby in the middle of summer (the end of August is already starting to let up a little) and I have all the respect in the world for those who do!
Out we went into the bright sun!

Thanks to our Sissou tree out front, we did find one shady spot in which to take a picture before liftoff!

Scout was there too.
He liked Mason pretty well.
He celebrates too.

Bethany was the first to send her balloon up! Because the pictures weighed them down, we had to cut the balloons off their strings so they would fly!

And there goes hers!

Next was James!

And Ben!
Up, up, and away!

We watched the balloons until they disappeared, with our messages attached.
Happy birthday, Daddy Mason!

We enjoy having a day to especially recognize Mason, his life, his continuing mission, and his place in our family. I like talking with the kids about him. The experiences that surround the beginning years of our family are ones filled with opportunity for acknowledgment of Heavenly Father's plan for us, for strengthening of testimonies centered on the love He has for us, and very little room for doubt about all that the teachings of His gospel entail.
For that, I am so grateful. I think of the stripling warriors, how they spoke of their mothers' testimonies. How "they did not doubt their mothers knew it.." While I am a far cry in my progression from where many of the faithful women of the past were as mothers, I cannot deny that the experiences I have had in my life leave me with so little room for doubt, I surely hope my children could say that they do not doubt that I know what I teach them of Christ and his restored gospel to be true. Every day I have room for improvement...every minute of every day...and I pray that someday I can live up to my knowledge.

I have been thinking about Mason and his earthly life lately.
As I endeavor to have faith in Christ, hope in all things, and charity for all children of our Heavenly Father, I find myself looking to his example.
Hope has been particularly on my mind as of late. There are hard and scary things happening in this world, on many levels. People struggle with difficulties, fight with each other, our earth rages against us, and so few look to Christ for solutions. It can all feel very bleak. I do my best to see the good in all, to banish fear, but too often, I feel discouragement try to sneak in. There is much to mourn for in the current state of our earthly home, in our society.
We have come far from the God who created us from dust.
Occasionally, it does feel like a hard thing to stay focused on the hope we have. It is so huge and glorious but somehow it gets stuck in the back of our minds. But I think about Mason. He was no stranger to hard times. He was no stranger to opposition. He was not immune to the trials that befall all of us here on earth. Much of his life was spent dealing with challenges that I wouldn't begin to know how to handle. And yet I can think of so few times when he was anything but cheerful, eager, and hopeful. A boundless and optimistic energy is so much a part of who he is that there are probably very few people who ever knew him that didn't have to tell him to TONE IT DOWN every once in a while. :) As one that acted as his buffer for many years, I saw that energy as something that provided amusement, something I sometimes envied, and something that sometimes put me a little too close to the center of attention! I knew it was a good part of who he was. But not until recently did I recognize that part of it was his hope in action. It was optimism given motion and made audible. It was his declaration that life is good. Despite hard things, despite stumbling blocks, and even despite an earthly life shorter than any expected...it lives on in his spirit, in his children, and I hope...in me.
Looking back on his boundless energy for good, I feel motivated to honor him and my family by keeping that energy in motion, teaching that hope to our children. I feel motivated to banish my fears, assume the best, try my hardest, and praise the opportunity given me to be on this earth every day.

We are blessed to have Mason as part of our family. As I now experience, we will all continue to learn from him for the rest of our lives.
And, as Bethany reminds us, someday Christ will come. We will experience the fulfillment of all we are meant to be. And we will see Mason again.
Floppy hair, boundless energy, and all.



P.S. The balloons were only the beginning. That evening, JC and I, plus my sister, Katie, went to see the new X-Men movie which had, all too appropriately, just come out that day. It doesn't get much more right on than that. :)