Sonda and I thank you all for being here today. We appreciate all of your prayers and support. We cannot express our gratitude in words. I would like to try and share some thoughts with you this afternoon, so please bear with me.
Sonda and I dedicated Baylee to God before she was born. We told God to use Baylee however he saw fit. We meant every word of that, but we truly did not know the enormity of what we were doing. God truly used Baylee as we asked. Look around you and see just some of the lives Baylee touched. Baylee brought so many people closer to God. So many that we will never know. Every time someone prayed for Baylee, shared Baylee’s story, spent time with Baylee they were brought closer to God.
For example; Mrs. Bartucco was on her death bed and the family asked that we bring Baylee by for one more visit. Mrs. Bartucco was given hours to live, but it took us several days to get to her. When we arrived at Mrs. Bartucco’s death bed, she was in the fetal possession, eyes closed, hadn’t eaten, and was like that for days. I laid Baylee in the bed next to Mrs. Bartucco and all of a sudden Mrs. Bartucco straightened out, opened her eyes, grabbed Baylee’s hand and started talking to her. Mrs. Bartucco passed away with in 3 hours of Baylee leaving her side.
My Great-Aunt Hazel came to Sacramento after my Great-Uncle Gerald passed away. Aunt Hazel was sitting on the front steps of my Grandma Tadlock’s house. I placed Baylee in her lap. Baylee reached up with her hand and placed her hand on Aunt Hazel’s cheek. Aunt Hazel sat there and stared off into deep reflection. Aunt Hazel told me that Baylee brought her a peace that she could not explain.
Baylee had the gift of mercy. Without speaking she could comfort you with a huge hug or a simple game of peek-a-boo.
As many of you have been the victim of me returning from a vacation with pictures, I could not let you down today. Sonda, my sister Kim and I spent over 32 hours going through pictures to share with you today. Then Kim spent many more hours putting them all together.
In the pictures you will see all the things we did with Baylee. As you know we never treated Baylee as disabled. Baylee learned to roll because she could not crawl. You will see she got around when she wanted too. Baylee loved the feel of cotton. In one of the pictures Sonda had just left the room after receiving the cotton diapers. In a few seconds, Baylee rolled over to the pile of diapers and in gulfed herself in the pile.
Some of you will remember that we took pictures that we called “Baylee’s View”, these were pictures from Baylee’s perspective in the chair. Most of the pictures speak for themselves.
Again, Sonda and I can’t thank you enough. Sit back and enjoy the life of Baylee.
January 30, 2010
