hope is found in a plastic storage bin

A wonderful friend said this to me the other day, & I choose to steal it from her, because I love it!
(& I don't think she'd care)

"Until then there's hope. My hope is found in a plastic storage bin full of  newborn outfits...waiting for that day that you might need them. Not b/c another child would solve all your problems -

far from it - but b/c Clayton was a beginning to your family, 

not an end."

This is so beautiful! I am so thankful for wonderful friends, that just know the right thing to say, not because they feel they should, but because they want to.This morning while getting ready for work, I walked by the nursery, which is still a nursery. Crib is still set up with bedding, recliner in the corner with the night stand, changing table & wall decorations all intact. I stopped and went in, and looked around. There isn’t much different than before Clayton was born, besides the multiple angel statues & the cleaned out closet. It’s as if we are still waiting to have a baby, as if we never had one.  But that makes me sad. Did I clean out the room too early? should I have taken everything out of the room, and not left anything? should I close the door? I know I did the right thing by cleaning it out early. It just would be way too hard now. I put everything away in our downstairs closet, the week of the funeral. It wasn’t hard, but I think because I was in denial that that was our reality.  I knew Marcus wasn’t able to do it, and if you know me, when I want something done, I do it, NOW! So I packed it all in new Rubbermaid’s, took apart the swing and bouncy, and carried it all downstairs, packed it in the closet, not for good, but until next time, because I already knew there WAS going to be a next time.  
Back to why the nursery stayed intact. Marcus hadn’t wanted to take down the crib or any of the furniture. He said it was his little reminder that this wasn't the end, the "sorry try again" was still playing in his head.(he's pretty darn amazing!) So there it's stayed.  Stepping in the nursery, it’s the same, the same as it was before Clayton, the same as it now & will be for Clayton’s siblings.

When I think about all the stuff he never got to use, packed away, it makes me sad. The clothes I was so very excited to buy or the lion bath towel that he would look so sweet wrapped up in, or the jogging stroller with Tacoma running by our side, it just makes me sad to think of all the baby stuff that was all so ready for him, but I hold out hope & happiness for the day I get to unpack it and be excited to use it again, for Clayton's siblings.

So like my friend said, "there is hope in a plastic storage bin"

As time goes on, I survive because I have hope.