Landon Harold Lewis

Landon Harold Lewis was born in the wee hours, kicking and crying, on September 1, 2013. He was a fighter. He brought people together. He has forever imprinted his spirit on our hearts.

On October 6, Landon peacefully passed away to be with our Lord.

On that day his Aunt Casey wrote: "Friends and family, today Landon was taken into the arms of our sweet Jesus. He was held by his amazing parents and surrounded by family as we spoke aloud ways that God had blessed us and ways that Landon had blessed others. We are heartbroken, but rejoice in the fact that Landon has been made whole and healthy in Christ. We are so thankful for all of you who cried with us, prayed with us, rejoiced with us, and shared in Landon's life journey with us."

Every life has a purpose no matter how brief a time they spend here on earth. Landon was born to very special parents, Matt and Katie. And while our Christian faith tells us that he is in Heaven with Jesus, our hearts are broken that he isn't here with us. So much is lost when a child passes away, yet we cling to our God who is with us through the valley of the shadow of death. Our prayers are with them as they mourn the loss of their first born.

My friend Brooke, whose son Edwin passed away, beautifully gave me words to describe my hope for Matt and Katie (and all those who grieve the loss of a child): And I pray that new joy will come in to their lives, neither tainted by nor diminishing the grief of losing their first born, but expanding their experience to allow for all that God has planned for them. Amen.

Landon was here with us for 35 days and with his mom for 25 weeks before that. Such a short time, but such a big impact. Three families very close to me in the past two years have lost a child. Edwin, Ruthie and Landon. I am not sure what I am supposed to do, but I have an intense need to do SOMETHING that makes a difference. To the families. To the babies. This will be Landon's legacy in my life, a call to action.

The day before he passed, his family was able to have pictures taken with him. They are beautiful.

Dates: September 1, 2013 - October 6, 2013

Obituary: Landon Harold Lewis, 5 weeks old infant of Elkmont, Alabama died on Sunday, October 6, 2013, at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Born Sunday, September 1, 2013 in Huntsville, Alabama, he was the son of Matthew Lewis and Katie Harbin Lewis. He is survived by his parents, Matthew & Katie Lewis of Elkmont, AL, and grandparents: Ronald & Cindy Lewis of Harvest, AL, Becky Harbin of Huntsville, AL, and Greg Harbin of Maryville, TN. Graveside services will be at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, October 9, 2013, at Gatlin Cemetery with Bro. Tony Boyles officiating. Visitation will be Wednesday from 1:00 P.M. until 1:45 P.M. at Ardmore Chapel Funeral Home.

* Landon is my nephew (in-law). He is the son of my husband's brother's wife's brother. It has been a privilege to walk with the Lewis family during this time.

* I received permission from the Lewis family to share Landon's story.

Let's get real

I first started this blog as a place to record all of the fun that Paul and I had at our old new house in Five Points. And fun we had! We reminisce about all that fun! Will we get to have that kind of fun ever again???

Then, when it came time to have babies, it wasn't so fun any more. So I wrote a lot about infertility. The summary of which is now a page here on the blog, and seems a distant memory. Now, we are dealing with a different type of dilemma, but that's another post another time.

Once Matthew came along the blog morphed into a happy place to post cute pics of our latest adventures. And lately that has bothered me. Life isn't just a series of cute pictures. It's messy. It hurts. And sometimes bad things happen. And then sometimes after the bad times pass, you get the opportunity to connect with others around you in a way that would have been impossible if you hadn't opened up about that bad thing that happened. So I am committing to being a little more real.  Just not here, we'll keep this as a record for our family adventures :-)

I started a blog a while back but kept it under wraps until now.  There is so much I want to write about and explore, mainly suffering and how we can have hope in the face of horrible situations.  The new blog is a place for that.  Join me on the journey.

But there is hope...

Another fun weekend!

Four Months Old!

Museum Day!

What a fantastic program.  The Smithsonian Institute sponsored a Museum Day that allowed families across America to visit our favorite museums on this one day for free.  And what with Matthew being a rocket aficionado chose to visit our very own US Space & Rocket Center.  And when I mean that Matthew is a rocket aficionado I mean this boy can tell you the difference between a "shuttle" rocket, a "booster" rocket, a "BIG" rocket and Daddy's ever popular "tickle" rocket that will have Matthew in stitches in no time.

Matthew will make it clear that his favorite is the BIG rocket (accompanied by saliva-choked rocket motor sounds and a finger lifting to the heavens).  Otherwise known as the Saturn V, he loves to point out this landmark from a distance anywhere in Huntsville. At home his imagination of rockets takes off in a variety of ways.  We have 'stomp' rockets that he loves to blast across the living room or at his sister.  Daddy bought Estes motorized rockets that Matthew would rather carry with him into school as puncture hazards and fire hazards.  And Matthew loves watching rockets on the ipad (pronounced "uh-put"), specifically SpaceX's especially cool Grasshopper, and ba particularly loud HD video of the Shuttle Discovery blasting off into space and into the imagination of children everywhere.  

But on Museum Day Matthew got to walk up close to his favorites: BIG rocket, shuttle rocket and booster rocket.  He was accompanied by Daddy, Mommy, Baby Charlotte and Poppie.  Daddy remembers when he was a little boy and Poppie would take him to airshows and museums and planetariums and then out into the fields to watch Haley's Comet and the moons of Jupiter.  Having Poppie with us made the day extra special for three generations of Lindgren rocketeers, armchair pilots, would-be astronomers and plane jane geeks.  And we are so very thankful we could spend this day with our little geek in America's favorite rocket park.

BIG rocket from a little boy's point of view... ready to blast off into the imagination!

Mateo von Stink Chub explaining how exhaust gas accelerates at peak efficiency in a de Laval nozzle

Someone please kindly tell Dr. von Stink Chub that we are about to launch the rocket

Matthew's food tubes are a lot like what they eat on the 

space station.  Coincidentally, Matthew's diapers are a lot like what astronauts wear too... sans the pictures of Tow-Mater or Cookie Monster.

Matthew confidently explaining something that Daddy has no earthly clue about what it does....

This baby girl is just enjoying the rays!

Matthew found a play space capsule in the Davidson Center that was a HUGE hit for every boy and girl!

Little boy, big dreams.

Time to ditch the crib!

The debate to move Matthew to a toddler bed has been going on for quite some time now.  But all advice and reason pointed to keeping him in the crib AS LONG AS POSSIBLE.  So, when we prepared the nursery for Charlotte, we got another crib, even though she wouldn't move in with Matthew for quite some time.

Fast forward....A couple of weeks ago Paul needed to work late so I said I'd handle the kids.  It's just hard to break your evening and come home just to have to go back to work.  

Well, Matthew didn't NOT agree with our logic and spent the ENTIRE evening asking "Where's Daddy?".  He had just started saying "Daddy" and "Monny" and his preference for "Daddy" is crystal clear.

The next morning he was a D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R.  So much so that it convinced Paul that coming home at 5:30 for an hour isn't such a bad idea.

Unfortunately, the subsequent evenings just seemed to spiral out of control above and beyond anything I was used to.  You see, the night time routine has always been MY time with Matthew and now Charlotte is also in on the action.  It kills me to end my day with Matthew in tears and tantrums.  I get so little time with him that I want it to be good!

Thursday night's routine culminated in pinning him down to put on "jammies" and then hearing him launch from his crib after I said good night.  I knew that we would have to put a mattress on the floor because there was no way he was going to stay put and the best I could do was offer him a comfortable place to sleep on the floor once he calmed down enough.

The next day we converted his crib into a toddler bed.  He was THRILLED!

oooohhhhhhh

Is this my new bed????

FREEEEDDDOOOMMMMMMM!

Jump! Jump! Jump!

Charlotte focusing on her birds

Thank you Monny!

Unfortunately, the freedom of a wide open crib was a little more than he could handle.  I could tell from the minute he climbed in that he didn't like the open side.  Once I was able to escape from the room we heard him in there for the better part of an hour tearing things up!

I wasn't able to get to the store to buy a side rail until Saturday so those first two nights were challenging.  He slept half on and half off and was very unsure of things.

When I set up the side rail and showed him how to get in and out he was even MORE THRILLED with his new bed.  Very cozy.

Saturday night as we were brushing our teeth we started talking about "jammies" and he made it clear that footed pjs were no longer acceptable.  He would not be wearing them anymore.  I am very sad about this.  I LOVE footed pjs.  So now we wear "night clothes" to avoid any confusion with "jammies".  

And tonight it looks like we finally hit a groove.  He went down without too much of a fight :-)  Love this little boy.  He'll always be my baby. 

Oblivious big brother the night before we brought Charlotte home.  

All BOY!!!!