My Dakotah

Sunday when we went to the cemetery it was nice weather so we sat on the grass by Austin's grave and relaxed for a while. Dakotah flitted around looking for pretty leaves to give to Austin. After a few minutes I looked up to see what she was doing. Austin is buried in a section that is just for babies. Most of the graves have all different kinds of paraphernalia on them. The last couple of days had been very windy and most of the items had blown over. Dakotah was moving among the graves, righting things that had blown over. I watched her carefully pick up stuffed animals and sit them upright. She picked up pots of plants and fixed flowers. She looked over her work to make sure she had fixed everything.

I was impressed with her little five year old compassion. She knows that babies are buried there and they are special like our Austin. As I watched her lovingly care for their gifts I thought about what my girls have learned in the last two years. They know that we go to the cemetery every Sunday. They know the "rules" of the cemetery. They know that special babies are buried there and we don't touch their gifts. They know that when someone else is there they need to be quiet so as not to disturb them.

They know more about the plan of Salvation than I did at their age. They know that Austin is in Heaven with Heavenly Father and that he will be with us after the Resurrection.



Sad little side story:
The cemetery has a pond with two swans in it. The day of Austin's funeral it was a good distraction for the girls. They named the swans Andrea and Austin. We often drive by and say hello to them. Well, a couple weeks ago there was only one swan. We figured something had happened to the other one and the girls said that Austin had died. It was really sad, their brother Austin died and now the swan Austin died. We found out later that a raccoon had got it and they will be replacing it. Maybe they'll name that swan Colby?