final farewell

our main reason for the trip to new zealand was to attend the unveiling of mama and papa's headstone. on friday morning we all went to the manakau memorial gardens and met with all of doug's family that had travelled from all over the world to be there 

doug's uncle sale spoke at the ceremony about families being together forever and even though i couldn't understand a word - i know that everyone around me could feel the beauty in what he was saying. doug's mum told me that the words on the top slab meant something along the lines of the words in the hymn 300 - families can be together forever... they pulled the tapa cloth off to show the headstones and that was it. a few hymns were sung, and again i didn't understand, but feeling it was enough.

it's been a whole year now since mama and papa passed away and as i said in previous posts it is tradition in the samoan culture that the family gather together as the headstone is unveiled. it is the last thing that we do for them, so it is a big deal, and being that i couldn't be at the funerals cause i was too far pregnant, we made a special effort to be there and most of all for maddie to be there with all the family that she'd not yet met. 

at the end of the ceremony balloons were released heavenward with messages attached for mama and papa. i have no doubt that the two of them sat with maddie before she came to us and got to know her - and again i take comfort in knowing that we are indeed part of a forever family and we will one day see them again.

maddie with her mama & papa 

♥♥♥