Shadd's first Easter

The list of Shadd's first holidays completed keeps getting longer. This year was also the first time I celebrated Easter by following American traditions. In Haiti, Easter is celebrated by having the biggest feast of the year kind of like thanksgiving. In fact, my mother remembers Easter as the only day of the year where she would get to eat enough to feel full when she was a kid. My memories of Easter in Haiti was of coming home from school with a purple dyed baby chick. I was to take care of the chick because she symbolized life. I also remember the day I was told I had eated my friend...sad day for sure. Travis loved the idea and decided we should adopt it into our family but of course we should make sure our kids CLEARLY understand the chicken will have to die to bring us life just as Christ did. I'm almost positive you skimmed down to look at pictures before reading this through, so you probably noticed there was no baby chick this year. I'll tell you why.

We went out looking for a baby chick only to learn a series of regulations making it almost impossible by Easter.  First, they wouldn't sell us just one chick since the store had a minimum of six per sale policy.  We then decided Why not? Maybe we could have a chicken coup and start raising chickens. Fresh eggs, fresh chicken all good right?! The next step was to look into the chicken coup permits in our neighborhood... Such a hassle, not enough time and not what we expected to spend. On top of that, Travis had a flight and just like Halloween had to be gone for Easter. So Shadd and I gave the Easter bunny a chance this year and got ourselves a basket. 

Shadd was with Hannah and it was both weird and nice not having him with me. I didn't know what to do with myself so I just took pics of him.  I'm told it is "healthy" for him to be away from me every now and then but I still have a hard time. I'm working on it. 

How I wish I could figure out what he is thinking there. He looks bored and relaxed at the same time. 

                     

Shadd was so adorable collecting his eggs. He was content with just one and had to be encouraged to continue looking for more.

In the end, I think I'm going to let my kids collect eggs AND get a chick for Easter. I really enjoyed the whole Easter bunny practice and maybe next year I can try coloring eggs too. I just look forward to Shadd understanding more about the sacrifice The Lord has made for us. When we do get that chick and take the time to raise it knowing it will be eaten on Christmas, we hope Shadd can associate it with the atonement instead of just something we do. Until then, bring on the candy!!