Another reason why we just know Rowan is an angel here on Earth...he's got connections!

This picture is a picture of Rowan holding a priceless photo of his very special friend Chrissie. Chrissie passed away 8 months ago, while hospitalized following major heart surgery. She was just 4 years old, like Rowan. Rowan tells us that he talks to Chrissie, see her in rainbows and sunshine, and misses her a lot. He calls her his "Girlfriend in Heaven". The interesting part is that Rowan never actually got the chance to meet Chrissie while she was alive.

Chrissie moved into the same PICU room that Rowan had just been in. He was moved upstairs and she went into PICU rm 1. Rowan started spiking a fever of 107 that night and was shaking all over, when he suddenly woke up looked at my computer and saw a picture of Chrissie fighting for her life on her Mom's blog, which I was reading. He said "Aww that little girl is here too. We should pray for her Mommy." and then he fell right back asleep. His fever broke and I went down to meet her Mom the next day and tell her we were praying for them. Over the next few weeks, while Chrissie and Rowan were both there in the hospital still, I took her Mom a few cards, a cross and some goodies and Rowan started coloring her pictures which I also took to her room. Every night before he would fall asleep he would say "Mom, don't forget to pray for Chrissie tonight too. OK?". And we did, every night for nearly a month, there with me kneeling beside his hospital bed, we prayed for Chrissie in her hospital bed just downstairs from us. Then when Rowan was finally getting discharged, I went down to say goodbye to her Mom and to tell her we would be continuing to pray. That night, Chrissie died, still there in the hospital. She had never even woken up since her surgery. See, I never got to actually meet Chrissie, just her Mom, and Rowan had never even seen either of them in person himself. But he knew about her, he drew pictures for her, he prayed for her every night and he looked at her Mom's blog with me. Somehow, a connection was made though, a God connection, because I'm telling you...that kid knows Chrissie now. Here are a few short stories that prove it to us. We love you Patterson family, thanks for sharing Chrissie's story so we could continue to see God working through her short but amazing life and through Rowan's miraculous connection to her!

Rowan and I both attended Chrissie's Celebration of Life. While we were driving there, he kept insisting that he needed to stop and buy her a baby doll. I told him we just couldn't do that and he was so upset. When we got there and we went up to the casket, Rowan asked me if he could see her. I wasn't sure how he'd react and especially because he had never had the chance to see her alive, but something just told me to let him look. Well, beautiful Chrissie was dressed head to toe in her best princess costume with her baby doll laying right beside her and Rowan smiled ear to ear, started crying and said "Oh Mom, I knew it, she's a princess! And look, it's ok, she has her baby doll so I know she's not scared to go." And I believe him.

At the beach this Summer Rowan asked me to write "We miss you Princess Chrissie" in the sand so she could see it up in Heaven. I did. Rowan said Chrissie hugged him back on the beach and that it felt pretty. I bet it did. A few hours later he saw a rainbow, beeamed from ear to ear, got tears in his eyes and said "Look Mom, Chrissie loved it!" He was just certain that she was sending him that rainbow as a sign of thanks. I believe him too.

While visiting Chrissie's gravesite, at her families ranch this past November, I took a picture of Rowan looking down at her gravesite. He told us he wanted to give her some love:-) Later when I finally downloaded the pictures on my computer (ironically 6 months to the day of her death) Rowan looked at the picture and immediately said "Oh there she is looking down at me." I said you mean you looking at her, and he said "No Mom, that's just where her body is, see the sunlight shining on me? There she is!" It was amazing. It had been a dark cloudy day, and there was no sun in any of the other pictures, except this one. It had a perfect beam of light right over his head shining down...incredible. Again, we believe him.

Rowan woke up in the middle of the night one night back in December and said "Mom, I need to make Chrissie's Mom and ornament for Christmas. It needs to have the sun and a rainbow and her horse and lots of flowers on it." I said sure, what made you think of that. He said "It's what Chrissie wants on it, so her Mom can know she is still around in all the things that are beautiful." You kinda gotta believe him.

We are forever blessed to have had the opportunity to meet Chrissie's Mom, to pray for her precious daughter, and to now call them our dear friends. Rowan's unique connection to Chrissie continues to bring us treasured stories like these, and we know that it is proof that God has a plan. We may not like what it looks like sometimes, but you can't deny that things happen for a reason and that good things can come out of bad times. Oh, and Princess Chrissie, we can't wait to finally meet you when we get to Heaven too:-)

To learn more about Chrissie and the awesome Patterson family visit her Mom's blog at allarepreciousinhissight.blogspot.com