For Ella

Grief is a funny thing. Most of us are aware of the varying stages of grief. We know that there may be denial, anger, guilt, depression and acceptance, but they feel much different walking through them than I thought they would from watching others. I always viewed denial as a brief stage that was filled with questions like "is this really happening? How could this have happened?", and then moving on to another stage. Denial, for me, seems to come and go. There was the s

In recent weeks, we have had multiple people approach us with very similar stories about Ella. Some of these took place at school while others took place at church. However, each account involves a family that was new to the area. These families each shared that their daughter was new to school or church. In each scenario, Ella approached each girl and offered to be their first friend. THAT is an act of kindness. THAT is loving beyond self and changing the world, one new