'Goodbye Noah'

We really wanted to make Noah's funeral service and graveside burial a celebration of his life, therefore we asked everyone to wear bright colours.  We knew we would be sad saying goodbye to him, but we wanted as much as possible to be able to celebrate the life that he had, and to be grateful that we got to spend many more years with him than the doctors every predicted.

After a week or two of pretty average weather we woke up to blue skies and a beautiful warm day.  It was incredible and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.  After the funeral service we spent a bit of time at the chapel talking to people, before moving onto the Woodlawn Children's Lawn Cemetery at Carr Villa. 

Earlier in the week Aaron and I had met with the funeral director Mandy, and had gone for a drive to look at where Noah would be buried.  It was a really beautiful spot as it was just for children and instead of having rows of graves, the plots were around trees.  We got to pick exactly which tree we wanted Noah buried around.  We chose this one because we loved how the branches went right to the ground, rather than showing some trunk.

For years I had thought about the whole service and burial, and knew that one thing I really wanted to do was release heaps of coloured balloons.  When we arrived they looked so beautiful as they were in bunches along the way to his grave.  

It was so nice to have so many kids there in their bright colours, and to see their faces as they saw the balloons.

Harri and Jay had fun helping the funeral directors hand the balloons out to the kids (and some adults:)

Aaron, Chrish, Jared and Eden were the pall bearers at the graveside.  The funeral director told us that she had seen at other funerals that people had used bubbles as well and we loved the idea. 

Bishop Bailey gave the dedicatory prayer while the coffin was being lowered into the ground.

After the prayers Bishop then told everyone to release their balloons at the same time.  I quickly moved so I could watch them float away and it was so beautiful and made me cry as the kids all called out 'Bye Noah!'.

We then spent a bit of time around the graveside, throwing in flowers, watching the kids throw in cards, and just talking and crying with people.

It's still hard to beleive when we go up to Noah's grave that his body is actually there, but we are so gladit's at such a beautiful place. 

I can't thank Chelsea, Fiona, Alison, Chrish or Leona enough for taking so many photos for us. There are so many things that I didn't notice or had forgotten about and I am so glad I have the photos to look back on now.