"Special Place"

In case you hadn't heard the drama, when I got home to "check" Kinley's gravestone before allowing it to be set, I discovered that it was wrong! We had gone back and forth several times because I thought from the drafts that the feet were being enlarged. I finally approved a draft only because we wrote directly on the form that the feet were to be the EXACT size of her actual footprint. Here is the original stone with Kinley's actual footprints next to the ones that were put on the stone...

I realize that in your rational mind, this really shouldn't be THAT big of a deal. We could be refunded the money and start over or we could try to have an artist fix the stone. I handled it pretty well on the outside, but on the inside something started brewing! It bothered me that her 1st birthday was approaching and the stone still wouldn't be there. I had worked so hard and taken so long to have it just how I wanted it and I just wanted it done and right! The product of the stress and emotion that began forming when I saw the stone done incorrectly can be read in my previous post!

After checking with other companies and worrying and fretting, we finally decided to have the middle of the stone polished down and have an artist come in to try to hand-etch the footprints. I was worried about the sizing and thought there might be too much space between the words for such tiny feet, but agreed to meet with the artist to discuss the options. We mainly chose this because we were promised that if we went this route the stone would be set on Saturday.

On Thursday morning I met with the artist. The artist and I decided to add a simple bow around the outside of the circle in order to fill in some space. In just a couple of hours the stone was finished and I went back to check it. I was shocked and amazed by the wonderful job that she did!!! She did an awesome job of getting the tiny details of Kinley's feet perfect. On Saturday morning the stone was set. Here is the product of all the time and stress...

The detail on her feet turned out so wonderfully! It really looks exactly like the footprint that I gave her to use as her guide.

We were also able to get some great shots of Brenna with her baby cousin's stone, as well as one with Mommy!