Quick Post

Of course, I expected to come across a few items while packing that would cause me to sit back and let my mind wander. I love, love, LOVE finding little "Liam things" amongst my belongings. I have a Liam Box that has most of the pictures he's drawn me, photos of us together, dinosaurs that were gifts from Liam (and eventually the Kanes after he passed away). However, there are a few things floating around that I often forget about. Tonight I was packing up most of the books from my bookshelf and came across a tiny book titled "Wishes for you, Graduate". I am trying to give away some of my books to Goodwill, because I just have way too many, but I've been checking the insides of some to make sure they aren't inscribed with anything. When I opened this book, the millisecond that I saw the handwriting, I immediately remembered who it was from! In the front cover are these words:

"Dear Kristen,
Congratulations! My children look up to you! You are truly a gift to us. Don't ever lose that special compassion and spirit that you have!
We love you,
Andrea, Kevin, Liam, and Alli
June 2005"

The Kanes gave me this book at my high school graduation party, along with a beautiful card that is in my Liam Box (Liam wrote "I love you. -Liam" in his huge, scrawling just-five year old handwriting). This was 2 months after Liam relapsed, and about 5 months before he passed away. Here is a photo from that day-















I am so thankful to have so many photos, drawings, and other little things from Liam. One question that you guys might be able to help me with, though - I have this beautiful coloring page that Liam colored for me with Crayola Markers. It's on a coloring book page - so it's that thin, greyish paper. I have it framed, and keep it out of the sunlight completely, but it's definitely fading. (It's about 4 years old now). I was wondering - does anyone know of anyway that I might be able to preserve it? I've already scanned it into my computer, so that I'll always have it, but I love the orginial, and often touch the back of it, as I hope that it still has Liam's fingerprints on it, and that can be comforting at times.

Any ideas? Let me know!