I think we all have those special unforgettable moments in our life. Some heartwarming that just make you smile while others are gut-wrenching heartache. We never know when those moments will happen but when they do you know it.

For me one of those moments was the day I found out I was pregnant with Mari. Keith and I have infertility issues. After having many test done and procedures performed we were told that the only way we would be able to have children biologically is to have IVF (In-vetro Fertilization) done.

I still remember the day where I was sitting in Pizza Hut with my husband Keith, my mom, and her then husband Jerry. I looked over at another booth where this family had a little baby. The baby was around 6 to 9 months old. And I started to cry as I couldn’t get pregnant.

After the final verdict, so to speak, came out about us not having kids, I also found out that my insurance at the time would not cover IVF. Our only option at that point was to then adopt. We knew there were many children in the world who needed parents and maybe we could be one of those.

And then on June 10, 1999, two days before we were to head to Florida along with Keith’s sister Amy coming with us, the pregnancy test I took that morning, and I hadn’t even told Keith because I was ruling out being pregnant before going to the OB/GYN as I had the shortest period of my life to where it lasted less than a day.

I looked at the result only after 2 minutes and I let out a scream. Keith came running freaked out. And then he saw the vibrant smile on my face. When I went to the doctor later that day to confirm I was, God had performed a miracle that doctors said couldn’t happen. This was an ecstatic special unforgettable moment. One I still cherish to this day.

And then to the other end of the spectrum are the devastating special unforgettable moments. I’ve had many it seem throughout my life. From all the abuse I had while being a child to finding out that Mari wasn’t like other children as she had autism. The most devastating of them all was the day I sat in a room with my husband and had to make a choice on how to let our beautiful little angel go. The choice no parent should have to go through but there we sat anyway.

To say the decision to let our little girl go that night was difficult is quite the understatement. There truly are no words to be able to describe this. My daughter took the last breath of her life in my arms. She was forever gone from this earth on July 16, 2008. As I sit here writing this message tears rolls down my face.

And then this morning, I saw something posted on Facebook. It is about one of the families who lost a little girl during the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school. It was posted by Beliefnet Buzz. Here is what the message said, “Girl dies in Connecticut shooting, but leaves one last message of love for her mom. So sweet!”

This of course piqued my interest so I clicked on the link. Here is what the article said, “In the wake of the school shooting that took her daughter, one mom discovers one last act of love left behind for her daughter.  Warning: The full video is very tragic. Skip to 2:55 for a moment of joy in the sadness.”

I wanted to watch the whole thing so I pressed the link. It opens up to a YouTube video. It was an interview ABC had conducted with this husband and wife who little girl was killed that horrible day. When they stood in the firehouse and were told that they had lost their little girl. Their worst nightmare came true. For them, just like for Keith and I, they little girl left this earth well before her time was through. However, they lost their child in a completely different way than how Mari died.

I can understand the loss they are feeling as far as losing a young child; I will never be able to understand the loss they have in that their little girl died at the hands of a madman. For them this day was their special unforgettable moment. This will be them for the rest of their lives. The grief will never fully go away.

But through all of this, they were also able to find a very special unforgettable moment that brought a bit of happiness through this tragic event. Their little girl had written in her diary how she loved her mom. What a source of comfort in such an unbelievable times as this. It brought a little bit of light into such a dark time.

Those special unforgettable moments will always remain with us. But the one solace we all have is that the happy or blissful ones in the end always outweigh the sad or tragic ones. It is these happy ones that help us to take it a day at a time to keep moving forward.

Here is the video for this interview. Please watch the whole thing. It will probably make you cry as it did me but when you get to the part where the mom is talking about the message left behind from her daughter, your tears will change from sad ones to happy ones.