1st Birthday...

Brooklyn had her 1st birthday on Easter. It seemed appropriate to celebrate the life of my angel baby on the same day that we celebrated what the Savior did for us. I'm so grateful that he made it possible for all of us to return to him and that he truly knows what she and I have gone threw. I know that because of our Savior Brooklyn will be whole one day and the she will have a brain that we will all be jealous of. 

One of my favorite quotes is from a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in which he said:

I can't believe that it has been a year since our adventure together started. I have learned more in the last year about pure love, patience, faith, prayer, sacrifice, long suffering, the medical field, joy, sorrow, compassion, grace, thoughtfulness, service, and generosity than I think I learned in the first 30 years of my life. I'm honestly so grateful that the Lord entrusted me such an amazing, sweet and strong little girl. Our family wouldn't be complete without her and although our lives have drastically changed since she joined our family and we feel so blessed that we get to constantly be surrounded by her sweet and strong spirit. Brooklyn has truly given me more of an eternal perspective than I had ever had before. 

It wasn't the typical 1st birthday...no digging in the cake, or even getting to try any cake for that matter. But she was surrounded by so many people that love her and had lots of help blowing out her candle and opening her presents! 

My sister surprised me with a slide show that she made of Brookie's first year. I started crying before it even started playing and continued to ball through the whole thing. At first I was hesitant to share something so personal to me, it is such a perfect depiction of her and her life that I changed my mind. It is sort of long, but I hope you love it as much as I do!