Losing a Child

[SamRoss]

My friend lost her 8 month old boy yesterday.  He was not sick.  I played with him on Wednesday.  And I am in shock.  How do you reconcile faith with something like this?  It was a freak accident.  He stopped breathing.  And I'm awake at 3 am because I keep thinking about her:  about all the baby stuff she has around her, that she was still breastfeeding this tender child.  He was beautiful, he loved his momma.  And now he's gone.  How do you make sense of that?  I'm going to the funeral on Tuesday; I'm sure it will probably mess me up more but I don't care.  I want to show her I love her, support her, and I can't believe this happened either.  Gratefully, she has a church family that is doing an excellent job of walking thru this with her.  But what words do you say?  How do you begin to heal from something like this?  Dedicated to baby Sterling.

From Beth Moore's blog:

Several months ago, Melissa had insisted upon going with me to have a dye test to follow up a suspicious mammogram. (No rumors please. I do not have breast cancer. Because my mother died with it, however, I never get the luxury of drama-less annual check-ups.) We were sitting in the waiting room and a rack was within arms reach offering all manner of brochure on various cancers. Melissa took one out after another and glanced over them, shaking her head. She looked up at me with that classic expression of hers and said, "Life is brutal, man."

I nodded.

We both sat silently for just a moment.

Then she said one of the most profound things I've ever heard.

"He knows it's scary to be us."

Yes, He does. Yes, He does. He does NOT take the fact lightly that we go through medical tests to see if we have a raging cancer. He does NOT take lightly that some of you are secretly fearing that the monster has come back. He does NOT take lightly that some of you are going through the cancer treatments of your own children. I had to pause and put my hand over my mouth on that one. Holding back the tears.

Son of David, have mercy on us! You know it's scary to be us! It's almost too much here, Lord. It's almost too much.

[mom3cutieboyz]

Apr. 11, 2009 at 8:38 AM

I am so sorry, your thoughts and prayers are with us in this time of need.  I can't imagine loosing one of my precious angels.  This is a hard cross to bear!  God will be with her every step of the way.

[Rachel1981]

Apr. 12, 2009 at 1:53 PM

What do you say?

Coming from experience, lost my 1st daughter at 4months old to a heart defect and my 2nd daughter to stillbirth at 8 months.

Say nothing! Just be there. Sit in silence and listen! Take her out to eat if she's up to it, watch a movie together. Let her make the first moves to talk. If she seems to distance herself from you don't take offense it's normal and she probably needs some alone time, but do check in on her.

She is in my thoughts and prayers.

rachel