Valentine's Day

Life is so much busier now that I'm back at work, and my blog posts are obviously slowing down because of it.  I have a lot to catch up and am about a month behind.

Valentine's Day isn't very big in Australia, but it seems to be getting bigger every year.  Aaron and I never made a huge deal about Valentine's Day but he would often surprise me after work with a bunch of flowers and some chocolates which was always lovely, but then he would hear me complaining about how we couldn't afford it.  Poor Aaron! 

I did appreciate the thought, but because I was always the one who did the finances, I always knew that it was a lot of money that we could've spent on something else.   It was nice that he wanted to make it special for me though.  He did actually propose to me on Valentine's Day in 1994, so I guess it has always been a special day to us.

The day before Valentine's Day this year, there was a knock on the door and a florist was standing there with these beautiful flowers. 
They were from my beautiful friends Naomi and Naomi, and at first I just thought how lovely it was and that they sent them to me because my Dad had passed away.    It took me half the day to realise that they actually sent them to me for Valentine's Day, as they have every Valentine's Day since Aaron passed away. 

When I realised that it was Valentine's Day the next day, I was glad that I hadn't been thinking about the day coming up and realised that things are so much easier now.   In January we were at Mum and Dad's house for my Mum's birthday and Dad said to me that he had a present for me for Valentine's Day.  He told me that he went to a shop and got something for Mum, my sister Nicki and me and that I could open it then, or wait until Valentine's Day.  He even got it gift wrapped and I could tell he was so excited to give it to me.  I reminded him that he had never bought us a Valentine's Day present before, and asked him why he did and he said he 'wanted to make up for all the lost years'.  It was just another thing that Dad was doing in the lead up to his passing, that shows me that he was preparing and that his time was short. 

I opened it up while I was with him, and was touched that he had chosen the plaque for me on his own.  I knew when I opened it that it would be something I would treasure later on. I just didn't realise that it would be so soon that it would mean so much to me.  It now sits next to this photo of my boys in Heaven.

One day I went to my cousin Tim's house and was so excited when I spotted some Rawleigh's salve on their table.   It brought back so many memories from growing up as my Pop and Nan always had it at their house.  It smells terrible, but the smell is a lovely smell to me because it reminds me of their house, and it is amazing stuff to put on cuts and burns etc.   I didn't realise that they still made it, and a couple of days later Tim and his wife Helene did a 'knock and run' and left all of this on the door step.  They are so thoughtful and it now I just open the tin of Rawleigh's and smell it to remember Pop and Nan.
Mum moved into her new house the day before Valentine's Day, so on Valentine's Day we were out helping her unpack all day.   It was actually a really sad day because some close friends of ours had twin girls who were born at 32 weeks and one of them passed away that day.  I couldn't stop thinking about them all day, and wondering how they were coping and lots of memories came back because they were actually in the same hospital and ward that Noah was, when he passed away.

We got home about 10.30 pm and had some beautiful surprises on our doorstep.  It was such a shock to come home to so many lovely things and it meant a lot to know that people were thinking about us, and realising that it can be a hard day. 

I don't know who they are all from, but I'm so grateful to so many kind people who let us know that we are loved, even though my boys aren't here to do it themselves.