The Ryan Tree

When we lost our infant son in 1999, some wonderful friends gave us a tree in memory of Ryan. Of course, we had to leave it thriving in our Texas backyard. Once we got settled here, we planted a new Ryan tree. We will leave one wherever we go. Dallas was in charge of picking out the type of tree (Oak) and I went to the nursery to pick it up. It's been in the ground for nearly a year and is doing incredibly well. My next project is to incorporate a garden around it. I'm going to work with a landscape architect or expert to help. I have a vision of what I want it to look like. The weather is already turning fall-like so it'll have to wait til the spring. And once it's in, we'll label it with the beautiful memorial stone that the Maham family gave us on Ryan's 1st birthday anniversary.

Here's the Illinois Ryan Tree.

Here's the Texas Ryan Tree and garden just before we moved (Feb. 2007). And if the date is confusing, we moved to Illinois in Nov. 06 and sold the house in Feb. 07. Griffin and I went back to help the packers and that's when the picture was taken. Doesn't G look little!!

I love my Ryan trees but I sure would rather have my son here with us.