About 2 months ago I came across some pictures on my dad’s
computer. Pictures that I had no idea existed. Pictures that only my uncle
Randy would take. Pictures that I am forever grateful for.
2 years ago on this very day, August 26, 2013, we celebrated
Xander’s life and placed his earthly body in the ground. It was a surreal day,
a beautiful sunshine day, a day Doug and I prayed we would never have to
experience. No parent should ever have to bury their child. But we did, and we
are still living and breathing to tell about it. Time has continued to move
forward, even on the days we wished it would just stop, it hasn’t. As I look
back on these pictures I see just how much Carter, Charli and McClain have
grown and physically changed. I see just how much Xander’s friends have grown.
These were babies, children………having to carry the casket of their dear friend.
Nothing about these pictures is normal.
Yet, I could look at them all day long. I can look at them
and remember the ache in my body. The physical depth of grief we were living.
As I scroll through each picture I notice the people who were there to support
us, to hug us and to cry with us. The people who LOVED Xander Hall Moore, the
people who had cried out to God to heal this child, the people who carried us
when we were too weak to function. Everyone from family, police officers,
football players, best friends, teachers, doctors, nurses, and even some
complete strangers filled the church that day.
We are still grieving and some days my body still physically
aches and longs to hold Xander in my arms, to hear his voice, oh to hear his
laughter. But we live, because Jesus lives, we live and we face each day with hope.
The same hope that carried us through 9 years of battling cancer is the same
hope we had on the day Xander took his last breath and it is the very same hope
we had when we looked at his earthly body one last time. Our hope is JESUS! I
pray that you would know that very same hope that can only be found in Jesus.
Here are a few of the pictures from Xander's Funeral service
