Butterflies & Heart Shaped Clouds

Upon looking at the photo hunt list yesterday there were two items with an asterisk by them; butterflies and heart shaped clouds, with a note near the bottom saying 'stay tuned for a story as to why these were included'  ... i stayed tuned.
This morning I open my Google reader to find said story and I want to share it with you today, because it brought a pretty solid tear to my eye and I'm hoping I'll be able to fulfill these items.  Here is the story (can also be found here):

Have you ever heard a story that was so tragic and sad that you felt helpless to do anything about it?  Well, what would you do if you had the opportunity to send a little happiness to someone who really needed it, even if that person was a stranger?

I was recently contacted by someone close to me who has been following and supporting our Photo Hunt Challenges since the beginning with the following story:

“One of the families at my daughter’s school recently lost their son (Vincent) to Rhabdomyosarcoma, a form of cancer on June 9.  He was 7.  They had also lost their daughter (Annabella) a few years ago to Leigh’s Disease which is a mitochondrial disorder, she was 6 months old.  I have been following their story since hearing about Vincent’s battle.  I was hoping that maybe you can include 2 items in the photo hunt challenge – butterflies and heart shaped clouds in their remembrance.

The reason being, after Annabella passed away, they started seeing butterflies everywhere.  They constantly had butterflies at their door and around them when they were out and about.  The family said that Annabella was sending them butterflies to let them know that she was there and Vincent loved that.  Before Vincent passed, his mother asked him what things he would send when he went to heaven and Vincent said, heart shaped clouds.  At the time, his mother couldn’t remember ever seeing a heart shaped cloud, and after he passed away, she was sitting with their daughter, Sofi, and was telling her that Vincent went to heaven, and Sofi looked out the window and saw a heart shaped cloud.  Since then, she sees them pretty regularly.”

So get your cameras ready and please be on the lookout for butterflies and heart-shaped clouds during the month of August!  We will be sending a link of all the photos from these categories to the family of these two little angels who were taken way too young….

Just kind of touched me today as I was reading it... big reminder that you shouldn't take life for granted.