In Memory of Avielle

On this second day of Christmas, we begin our remembrance of the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary (see side note below).  The boys and I wanted to take these twelve days of Christmas (and beyond) to remember each one of these precious lives as individuals.  So, we will look at what we learned about each one and share with you throughout the next month...the length of time it will take to share each day for the next 27 days.  That in itself is so upsetting to think that there were so many killed; however, the grief we feel is nothing compared to the families who will go on with their grief indefinitely.

Today we remember Avielle...a sweet little 6 year old girl...her family called her their "little hummingbird."  We thought it was fitting that she be remembered on this second day of Christmas...as the popular Christmas song brings to mind TWO TURTLEDOVES...although this is to represent the sacrifice the Holy Family made at the Temple as an offering to God (Luke 2:22-24).

We learned that Avielle loved ACTION...from swimming and archery to riding horses and Kung Fu...we could easily see why her family choice the feisty little hummingbird to express the energy Avielle must have had in her short life.  However, she also liked reading and music.  When we were designing her quilt, we immediately thought of a super hero cape that showed all of her strengths.

We are only at the design phase of her quilt because we need to make a run back to the fabric store for more material.  She had so many interests that we want to include in her quilt!  It was such a joy to 'meet' Avielle and I am sure my rambunctious boys would have enjoyed playing with her.

Today is also the feast of the first martyr of the Church, St. Stephen.  He was stoned to death under the watchful eye of the zealous Saul outside of the walls of Jerusalem.  He is known for his prayer for his executioners as he died.  This is only story of Christian martyrdom recorded in the Bible (Acts 6-7).  Just as St Stephen was given the task of helping the poor widows and orphans as a deacon, we should take some time today to help the poor.  Our plan is to give food to a local homeless shelter and clean out our closet of anything that can be given to the thrift store dedicated to helping the women's shelter in our town.

And, we cannot forget the good saintly king Wenceslaus who also served (much like St Stephen)...Did you think it was just a nice song that we hear at Christmas?  He was a real king who not only served his people and fought off his own pagan mother and brother, but would also do as the song suggests...He got dirty feeding the poor...not leaving it just to his servants to complete the task.  We hear more about him on September 28th as this is the day he was killed by his own brother!

SIDE NOTE:  I have had people say that we are becoming a little obsessive in our understanding of this tragedy.  I think that in our nation there is a sadness that cannot be explained due to this mass killing of innocence.  I normally do not read the headlines nor the story behind them to my children.  These stories usually seem to show the evil of this world and I keep this away from the boys unless I see the need to share.  However, the headline of "27 Killed at Elementary School" flashed across my computer screen while trying to help the boys with school work and they saw the news along with me that day two weeks ago.  I had no choice but to read the story with the boys crowded around me.  They wanted to know who would do such a thing as this and who the children were that would 'deserve' to be killed in a school.

You can imagine...as we learned together in our home...how hard it was to read the first article not knowing what it be like...knowing that the boys were a little scared wondering if something like this could happen in a school closer to home...or even in our home.  To find out that most of the lives lost were children was devastating.  We stopped right then and began to pray for the families who lost their loved ones that day.  We prayed for the first responders.  And later, we prayed for all of those in Newtown and our nation, who also grieved the loss of peace during a time that should be filled with God's peace...that we would all find HIS peace somehow in spite of the evils of this world.

Since the boys knew what had happened, I felt a need to make the tragedy of these deaths wiped away from their minds...How do you remove the images of evil from ones mind?  The only way is to replace the evil with GOOD...and for me, in that moment, the choice was to learn about the lives of those lost.  I thought at the time it would just be a simple reading of names and seeing their pictures.  I really did not think we would be so touched by these lives...however, the more we read about these children and their teachers, the more we felt a connection to them.  We wanted to know them and we were sad to know that this world had lost them...and their special gifts.

Then our desire to help the families became our goal.  We saw the outpouring of love sent to the families and the others of Newtown.  We had no desire to send toys or flowers....plenty of money was being sent for memorials...What could we do to help the families?  The boys wanted to do something for the parents and siblings that would help them through the grief.  Then a phone conversation with Amanda brought the idea of making a memorial quilt for each child began to take shape...literally...at first in small baby steps...we began to see each life as precious through the designing of the quilts we were making.  Regardless, of the end result of this project, we know that the lives of those lost on the morning of December 14th will not be forgotten.  The families and friends...our nation...our family...will remember these precious lives...and we know that in the hope of God's grace...we will have the opportunity to meet them one day in Heaven.