Fall

My favorite time of the year is fall! I love the cool mornings and evenings....the scent of leaves burning on a fall afternoon....the cheers of a crowd at a football game...the leaves on the trees turning from bright green to an array of golden yellow, orange and red....pumpkins sitting in front of the grocery stores waiting to be placed on porches or even made into pumpkin pies.... shops are filled with the latest fall fashions.....pear trees are overloaded with fruit....kitchens are filled with the aroma of spices and warm pies baked from the bounty of the fall harvest...Halloween decorations adorn front porches and youngsters plan and purchase the scariest costume they can find. What's not to love about fall?

When Dillan was only about four, I walked outside one fall afternoon to find our front yard strung with toilet paper. I had wondered what was keeping him so busy outdoors. White streams of Charmin were blowing in the breeze from shrubs and the lower branches of the trees. His riding toys were wrapped like mummies in an Egyptian tomb. I was amazed and confused as to why he had done this to our yard! He promptly informed me that "It's fall! You're supposed to put toilet paper in the yard!" I had to laugh because I knew that each year of his short life he had witnessed me pulling toilet paper from trees after his older brother's and sisters' friends had wrapped our house on Halloween night.

A few days later, he flew out the door with one of my fruit baskets and ran to our pear tree. He wanted to pick the pears that were heavily hanging from the branches of our pear tree. He had somehow remembered the year before, when I had taken the same basket out to the back yard and picked pears (the ones that hadn't been pecked on by birds!) to make pear cobbler.

Good memories...however one memory of fall that rests in my mind and heart is not so happy. The year before Dillan was born, I had a baby girl on October 1. I named her Autumn Rose. She was born with anecephaly...she had no brain. I was heartbroken. She was born when I was only 4 1/2 months pregnant with her. I never saw her or even held her. She was quickly taken away from me. I believe the doctor thought it would upset me more to see her. She would have been a senior in high school this year. It took me months to recover from her loss but God had plans for me...I had Dillan a year and a half later....a true blessing from God. He was and still is "perfect"!

And so today...after all the good and bad, happy times and sad times, I know that fall is the perfect time of year! I was blessed with her...even though I never knew her. God continues to bless me with the beauty of this....my favorite time of year...FALL!