Celebrate as best we can; it still hurts.

Our youngest daughter, Gretta, and her husband, Joe, were expecting their son to be born in November. When Gretta went last Monday for her monthly appointment there was no heartbeat. Their son was dead within her, so they induced labor so that she could deliver their stillborn son. It was a very difficult labor for her. In fact, she had a reaction to something they gave her and they thought for a time that they might lose her, too! Joe called us and kept us posted along the way and called us when it was over, too. Bless his heart; this was a gut wrenching experience for him, too. He gave me a treasure when he called and told me of how he got to hold their son and how thrilled he was that Gretta survived. He said, “My son is as much a part of this family as I am.” I will always treasure that call from him. I didn’t say anything about this loss last week because I wanted to give Gretta a chance to tell the people who needed to know in person rather than by phone or by seeing it on the blog. She wanted me to put it on the blog today, so that it’s all done and they can begin to put their lives back in place. It's not like it's news that makes us happy, but it is fact and we are all adjusting to this tremendous loss.

They and we were so delighted about this baby. They are doing a complete autopsy to determine the cause of his death, but all we know now is that his life is over. We can still celebrate his sweet existence. He gave us joy just because we expected him. When my mom died, the thing that turned me around from such tremendous grief was this quote: “How long does a man live? Is it as long as you can touch him or is it as long as he touches you?” That is true for this baby, too. He will always touch us because we had such great expectations for him. His daddy is so right; he is as much a part of our family as any of us. Thank you, Joe and Gretta, for sharing with us, even through your tremendous pain.

Thank you God for blessing us with the delight of the expectations for this precious baby and for saving Gretta’s life. Thank you for the blessings of health and safety for all the rest of us and for 15 awesome grandchildren. Thank you for Gina and Brian and their family, who kept Elena while Gretta and Joe went through this traumatic time. (Thank you, Gina and Brian for being the family we all needed!)