Isabella Faith...5 years later.

On this day in 2005, Isabella was born at 21 weeks along. She breathed once or twice, and than died. I was in the hospital on the Mississippi Gulf coast for days before and Tropical Storm Cindy was coming ashore. Somehow it seemed fitting to have a downpour as she was born and died. I mark 2 anniversaries for her, usually quietly. November 13th was her due date, and July 7th was her birth/death date. This photograph is her box. The hospital gave it to me though I didn't look in it for days after. It turns out it's the biggest blessing anyone could have given me. The top swings open in two parts, on one side is her footprints in ink, on the other is a birth card with her weight, date, and time filled out. There is a separate cloth book with her footprints in cement and a fuzzy polaroid of her. I've added the grieving book they gave me, ultrasound photos, photos of me pregnant with her, hospital bands, cards from family and friends, cemetery and funeral home receipts, the hat, outfit, and heart shaped pillow they put her hands on for her photo, and a ceramic cross of an angel holding a baby someone gave me following her loss. Despite Hurricane Katrina tearing us up about 6 weeks later, living at someone's home, living in a camper for years, and multiple moves, I have this box still. I keep it hidden in a drawer and her memory buried in my heart. I thought it was fitting to have Anna's hands on this box today. I didn't want to ever forget so I had Isabella's name and date tatooed on my right wrist with a bracelet of leaves that stop around back in the shape of a broken heart. The handwriting is my own, the tattoo artist traced onto the transfer paper and put it on my wrist. Isabella is one of those things in my life that define me and she will always be a part of me.