Gut-wrenching. We had a miscarriage last year (very early, but with some strange misinformation). God has kindly opened my wife's womb and she is due in March. Thank you for sharing your story here, and for what is yet to come.
Thank you for talking about it, Michael. I still don't know what to do with our experience losing a daughter in the womb - it's like that part of my life is sealed off from everything else, because no one really talks about losing a child, so it feels lonely having gone through it. I'm glad you put this out there and lessened that sense a little for me tonight.
Had to catch my breath as I read the title of this post. I am sorry that you all weren't able to hold her as many parents do. Now when I look at your Christmas family photo, I see another daughter. You have a beautiful family of 9 children.
Our family has also suffered the early departure of a son. An accident at grandma and grandpas...we have all--now grown children too--written about it, differently. We have all asked the Lord our questions. And we have all come to trust in the Lord for each day, for each breath. We embrace laughter and love and tears and moments of awareness of the great curtain between the gift of now, and the greater gift to come.
And yes, through our greatest sorrow, God has brought us to our greatest purpose. The blessings are many, but all came at a price.
I think of this verse Is 40:11 "he shall feed his flock like a shepherd and gather the lambs in his arms, and gently lead the mother sheep." Comfort, sweet comfort, from the Lord. There is more to come...
Thank you for sharing something so deeply personal and painful. Although I've never been through a miscarriage or stillbirth you made it possible to walk in your footsteps for a few moments. Utterly gut wrenching. I wept only in imagining how difficult it would be to walk that road. This will help me to better shepherd those who God chooses to walk this road.
Been there, done that. You all have my sympathies. Our daughter Audrey Faith would have turned 21 this Thanksgiving. This brings back many memories, from everything suddenly going very wrong, to how she looked perfect, even though lifeless (I pushed the EMT to do a simple EKG, just to be sure), to the excited anticipation of everyone who was unaware of what had happened.
The calls were tough. Everyone was expecting a birth announcement. Well yes, but not what we all hoped. It was extra hard for my mother in-law, after my brother in-law had already lost a child not long after Mother's day that year. But shopping at Babys R Us, for a dress to bury our daughter in, was the worst.
It's amazing how people tell you so many stories afterwards. Susan learned her grandmother, besides the 9 kids, had several miscarriages. I realized later we had 4 (!) women in our home that week who had lost their first-born sons, including our pastor's wife and our midwife. Perhaps the only bright spot was it was our last baby, not our first. I don't know how women handle losing their first.
And even the gruff German lady who ran the nearby sandwich shop somehow got it out of me and totally changed, telling me the sad story of how her only son had died from SIDS. You could tell, decades later, she had not gotten over it.
"We were so close."
Yes… as a father, you feel like such a failure in a situation like that, helpless to help your child. But God is faithful, and one day, we will see them again…
My deepest sympathies to both you and Emily for your loss. Praying for the Lord's sufficient Grace and the Holy Spirit's comfort in those moments of grieving remberance. For what it's worth thank you for sharing especially for those who needed to hear it.
So sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing this.
Gut-wrenching. We had a miscarriage last year (very early, but with some strange misinformation). God has kindly opened my wife's womb and she is due in March. Thank you for sharing your story here, and for what is yet to come.
Thank you for talking about it, Michael. I still don't know what to do with our experience losing a daughter in the womb - it's like that part of my life is sealed off from everything else, because no one really talks about losing a child, so it feels lonely having gone through it. I'm glad you put this out there and lessened that sense a little for me tonight.
Had to catch my breath as I read the title of this post. I am sorry that you all weren't able to hold her as many parents do. Now when I look at your Christmas family photo, I see another daughter. You have a beautiful family of 9 children.
Our family has also suffered the early departure of a son. An accident at grandma and grandpas...we have all--now grown children too--written about it, differently. We have all asked the Lord our questions. And we have all come to trust in the Lord for each day, for each breath. We embrace laughter and love and tears and moments of awareness of the great curtain between the gift of now, and the greater gift to come.
And yes, through our greatest sorrow, God has brought us to our greatest purpose. The blessings are many, but all came at a price.
I think of this verse Is 40:11 "he shall feed his flock like a shepherd and gather the lambs in his arms, and gently lead the mother sheep." Comfort, sweet comfort, from the Lord. There is more to come...
Thank you for sharing something so deeply personal and painful. Although I've never been through a miscarriage or stillbirth you made it possible to walk in your footsteps for a few moments. Utterly gut wrenching. I wept only in imagining how difficult it would be to walk that road. This will help me to better shepherd those who God chooses to walk this road.
Been there, done that. You all have my sympathies. Our daughter Audrey Faith would have turned 21 this Thanksgiving. This brings back many memories, from everything suddenly going very wrong, to how she looked perfect, even though lifeless (I pushed the EMT to do a simple EKG, just to be sure), to the excited anticipation of everyone who was unaware of what had happened.
The calls were tough. Everyone was expecting a birth announcement. Well yes, but not what we all hoped. It was extra hard for my mother in-law, after my brother in-law had already lost a child not long after Mother's day that year. But shopping at Babys R Us, for a dress to bury our daughter in, was the worst.
It's amazing how people tell you so many stories afterwards. Susan learned her grandmother, besides the 9 kids, had several miscarriages. I realized later we had 4 (!) women in our home that week who had lost their first-born sons, including our pastor's wife and our midwife. Perhaps the only bright spot was it was our last baby, not our first. I don't know how women handle losing their first.
And even the gruff German lady who ran the nearby sandwich shop somehow got it out of me and totally changed, telling me the sad story of how her only son had died from SIDS. You could tell, decades later, she had not gotten over it.
"We were so close."
Yes… as a father, you feel like such a failure in a situation like that, helpless to help your child. But God is faithful, and one day, we will see them again…
https://twitter.com/aeroG/status/1862237445183394269
My deepest sympathies to both you and Emily for your loss. Praying for the Lord's sufficient Grace and the Holy Spirit's comfort in those moments of grieving remberance. For what it's worth thank you for sharing especially for those who needed to hear it.