our sweet ava.....

last spring, just like every spring, i took mary peyton for her Easter pictures with lisa patti. she has always done our Easter and Christmas pictures and is great - just fyi. anyway, mary peyton fell in love with this bunny. lisa heard her saying she wanted the rabbit and whispered to me that they were for sale when she was through with them. she said that if people don't adopt buy the rabbits, they are taken back to the farm and.....well.....yeah. it's not good. after talking to tommy i made the call to lisa and planned to pick the rabbit up in early may. tommy had always wanted to get mary peyton a rabbit, so it really didn't take much convincing =)

this past weekend, i went out to check on ava. she had been just fine that morning and i was just going out to give her another carrot. but when i opened the door and she didn't jump up looking for me, i KNEW something was wrong. bad wrong.

yes. you've already guessed what happened.

take into consideration that mary peyton is suffering from a double ear infection, feels awful, and would be heartbroken. plus, we tommy had not had time to get ava out and bury her. we chose to wait until last night to tell her - after we got in the bed and were winding down.

i don't know who cried more - mary peyton or me. her little face turned inside out and the tears were bigger than crocodile tears. when she looked me directly in the eye i almost lost it completely. we explained to her that ava's little heart quit working while she was sleeping and that we knew she wasn't hurting - she just didn't wake up from her nap.

tommy told her that he had buried ava out near the wisteria and her playground. i told her that we will make a stepping stone and let her decorate it the way she wants to. she sat and thought for a few minutes all hugged up in my arms. all of a sudden, she said, "mama, it's kinda like in ramona & beezus when their cat, picky picky, died." in an odd way, this helped her cope so much!

i then gave her the news that i've already talked to the man that lisa got her rabbits from last year and ava's mother is about to have some more bunnies - and we will be getting one! mary peyton was sad and excited all at the same time.

she has told people today, in a very blunt way, "my rabbit died.". her sunday school teacher told me that she got emotional talking about it with her, but then said that mary peyton told her she would be getting another one. we were riding around and i looked back to see my baby girl crying. when i asked what was wrong, she said, "mama, ava was my best bunny ever.". my heart broke in half. bless her!

losing this sweet bunny has helped mary peyton learn about life and death. she's learning to grieve. a friend of ours lost her grandmother this weekend. when i told tommy about it, mary peyton was in the room and said, "a grandmother is sadder than a rabbit.". so very true. not that she hasn't lost people, but this was an unexpected death...

in any case, please keep mary peyton in your prayers. i'm sure she will bring ava up several times this week and reminisce about her. i'll post pictures of the new bunny when we get her! she will only be 4 weeks old!!! oh - and mary peyton is thinking that maybe rosie will be a good name, but said she needs to see what she looks like first =)