Thank You To So Many

These past few weeks our little family has been so blessed by so many for which we are eternally grateful. There have been so many kind emails, cards, calls, and visits by so many friends and family. There have been so many beautiful flowers sent, books that have helped, gifts to help us remember our sweet boy, hours of working in our house, funds to help pay for the funeral expenses, meals to feed all of our family members in town as well as Brittany, me and the girls after everyone left, hugs, car washes, and so many other kind acts. This outpouring of love has helped to lift and encourage us. These and so many other tender mercies of the Lord have helped strengthen our knowledge that God does love his children and that many times he shows that love through kind acts of others.



Two of the greatest tender mercies for Brittany and I during these past few weeks have been our sweet daughters Savannah and Mikenna. They are having a difficult time but seem to understand so much. They have said many things that have helped us remember to smile. During the funeral Savannah reached up to Brittany and pulled Britt’s head down to her shoulder and just hugged her. During a very difficult day Savannah just sat next to Brittany and I as we cried. After a few minutes Savannah said something a bit funny that got us to smile a bit. She caught the smile and said, “Mommy don’t smile, don’t smile mommy. I see you smiling, don’t you smile. Don’t laugh mommy or you will wet your pants.” By this time she had us. She is usually pretty good at getting a smile out of us. A few days ago Mikenna drew us a picture of Daxton in the clouds and next to him she drew Heavenly Father and Jesus. She loves drawing pictures of Daxton. These are just a few of the many experiences over the past few weeks in which our girls have put a smile on our faces and touched our hearts with their kind, inspired words.

Brittany and I shared a few of our memories of Daxton at the funeral services. Brittany posted many of them in her tribute below. I would like to share a few more as well as a few of the closing comments from our remarks at our sweet Daxton’s funeral services:



Daxton loved to go outside with me. Whenever I was headed out Britt would ask him if he wanted to go outside. She would say, “Outside? Outside?” He would get so excited and pant like a little puppy. We would always go straight to the wind chimes first. He would reach up and touch them. As they chimed he would giggle and giggle, this never got old for him. Many times I would take him to the garden and pull a few weeds with one hand while holding him with the other. When we planted the garden for Family Home Evening he sat in the stroller and watched us. He wanted to be out helping and fussed a bit so Mikenna and Savannah would take turns pushing him around while we planted. He also loved to go get the mail with us. Savannah would usually end up pushing him in the pink (that was one of the few hand me downs he got from his older sisters) stroller while we would walk to get the mail and then go around the block.



Since Daxton’s birth I was always so excited for when he would be old enough to play catch with me. The last few weeks before he passed away he loved to catch with me using a little green bouncy ball. I would roll the ball to him. He would pick it up and try to throw it with both hands. It would usually bounce off of his head or feet and roll towards me. If the ball was too far away from me he would bear walk/crawl over to it and try again. He loved playing catch and would giggle every time he threw the ball as I clapped excitedly at his great throw. I’m so glad I got to play catch with my little guy before he left us.



We know that families are forever. As we’ve been remembering the past few days from our perspective the thought came to us that we had not considered the past few days from Daxton’s perspective. Thoughts have come to us that Daxton had a crowd of family and friends in his room with him throughout Sunday night, anxiously awaiting his return to them. Among them, we felt that our grandparents, my sister and many other family members and friends that have passed on from this life were there comforting him and then embraced him when he joined their side of the veil. We were then impressed that he met and embraced our Lord and Savior. Next his journey took him to meet his Heavenly Father and Mother. The thought then came that they encouraged him to come back to comfort and help his parents, his Aunt Lollie, and the rest of his family make it through this very difficult time. These thoughts were another tender mercy of the Lord for us.



We want to bear testimony of the truthfulness of the Atonement. We testify that Christ died and now lives. We are so thankful for the knowledge that we can live with our little chubba wubba if we live righteously. We are so thankful for a second less talked about part of the Atonement - the enabling power of the Atonement. I know that because Christ has suffered all things he has been able to succor us and bring peace to our hearts. This peace does not take away the pain, but it helps strengthen and give us understanding so that we might bear this burden.