Goodbye Sebastian

Sebastian, our first goldfish, Daniel's Christmas present this year, has now passed on.

We got Sebastian from a friend who had already had him a long time so he was an old guy.  He never quite adjusted to his new home with us, in just the four months that we had him, we went through three different antibiotics trying to cure the strange disease he had and just when it seemed like he was healing, he died..

I was sooo not ready to have the "what happens when fish die" conversation with Molly, let me tell you.  But it went rather well.. I basically told her that when fish die, they go to heaven and have new healthy bodies and are not in pain anymore.  That made her happy, to know Sebastian was no longer sick.

The next question she had was how was Jesus going to get Sebastian's body out of the tank and into heaven.. hmmm...

Not sure if this was the best thing to do but we handled that question by having Sebastian just disappear from the tank overnight.. The next morning Molly said, "Oh look Mommy, Jesus came and took him to Heaven!"  Catastrophe diverted, (sigh)

What makes this all so surreal was that two days after, our other fish, Flounder, started having babies!! We watched her have 7 in all, but I know there were more.

It was like watching the cycle of life.. the old pass on and new life is born.. What a beautiful picture of a very difficult life lesson...