Butterfly Garden: Before |

My dear Chou Chou (that’s a French term of endearment I use for my beloved) had the best idea ever as we were dealing with our new reality that Millie would not be physically joining our family. To be perfectly honest, I was still in denial, thinking the doctors were wrong or had made some mistake, or that this was a nightmare and therefore not real. After all, everything about the pregnancy was perfect and we were 38 weeks along. We were all ready to meet Millie Bonheur, and of course no doctor talks about the highly unlikely event of a stillbirth during any prenatal visits. Chou Chou, on the other hand, understood the harsh reality and said, “Let’s celebrate her with a butterfly garden.”

And since then, mes amis (my friends), we have seen more butterflies flutter through our yard than in the past six years we have lived in our little country home. Mon Cœur (literally, my heart; what I call my daughter) and I will often be outside swinging when I see a butterfly glide through the air right in from of us. It’s become second nature for both Mon Cœur and I to say, “Hi, Millie!” because…what else can we do?

Above are the before pictures of the garden – we have plans to clear the cherry tree, create a meandering path, add contours, and build a grotto. Today was a day of reflection and planning of the space. With the cooler weather, we had such a nice mild day that Chou Chou, Mon Cœur and I walked the space of the garden, decided on where the pathway would roam, and staked it off.

Below, Mon Cœur is helping to label the stakes. Within just two minutes, Chou Chou has walked a space of four stakes in three different possible pathways. I knew there would be no way that we would remember the pathway, and was proven right when I had a momentary lapse as we were labelling the stakes!