The first day of Camp Oak Leaf was terrific but tiring. The weather was cold, and we were all emotional. We had met some great people, and Theo and I felt we had just touched the tip of the iceberg for healing.

Before we got to camp, we received an email that we would be creating some type of nature sculpture during camp. The weather was not going to be great, and it wasn’t, so the directors told us to bring nature items to camp with us in case we couldn’t scavenge for any.

Theo and I picked just a few flowers from his tree and plants that we had received from his Celebration of Life. We were not sure what we would need or how much, so these are the two items we brought.

We found time to walk the campgrounds on day one, under an umbrella, to scavenge for a few more items. While doing so, we found a large piece of wood and a nice stick, picked some leaves from various plants, picked out some rocks from a few of the rock beds that we really liked, and even found one with some druzy in it.

That day we let them all dry in our cabin. (Fun fact: they had bugs on them, so Theo and I rinsed them off a few times to ensure no creepy crawlers made their way out of the bathroom).

The next day we brought our nature items to the cafeteria, where we worked on the fourth activity: building a nature sculpture representing our story.

We wanted something that stood tall and was bold. The large stick represented Theo, and the smaller stick represented me. We are leaning on each other during the most challenging thing we will probably ever go through.

We put the flowers and leaves off the wood to represent our commitment to both work on growing through the pain, becoming better people, and never growing apart.

We didn’t realize we had picked up five stones. Theo and I are praying and believing for the Lord to provide us with twins. We found it fitting that the five stones represented Theo, me, Archer, and our two future babies.

Then we placed the one stone we found that had druzy all by itself. Most people saw Archer as just another child or rock, but on the inside, he was just an innocent child that would shake this world more than I can hope I ever do in my lifetime. He was special. I cannot explain it, but I believe God placed something different inside him. Something that would make people want to follow along on our crazy journey because they knew and loved our special little boy.

This sculpture, while mostly dead, still sits in our home. This was the start of our healing journey, and while we have come a long way, we have so much further to go.