It’s hard to know how to write now, or what to write. We
really want to thank everyone for your prayers, thoughts and support through
this time. It is such a comfort knowing that there is a community around us
praying for us when we can’t, putting food in our fridge and just sitting with
us during this time.
Good friends of ours lost their son last year too early as
well. I wanted to share something she wrote during the time after they lost
him.
“People
always want to know if you've healed after a few weeks have passed.
The
thing about trauma and loss is that the term "healing" is relative.
You don't heal, you are changed. You live with the fact that there is forever a
hole in your heart that cannot be replaced. You walk to a different cadence,
you pray different prayers, and you are totally and completely a different
person.
Yes,
God redeems. God heals. But it's not all promised right now. Until that day,
you learn to walk with a limp.”
During
this week after Hailey has gone we have reflected on so many different things.
We want to share so many thoughts with you and where our hearts are at (watch
out it differs every day). Through all of the legalities that we have to
navigate (birth and death certificates, meeting with funeral home, social
security, insurance issues, etc.) our hearts have stuck on a couple
thoughts. These thoughts were thoughts
that were milled over a couple years ago with a close friend and mentor. Little
did we know that years later we are finding ourselves coming back to them and rooting
ourselves deep in the truths of them.
The
first thought is the concept and theology of the ‘already but not yet’. When we
accept Christ as Lord, we are promised to be a new creation, a new being. We
become one with Christ and through his death and resurrection we are free from
the condemnation that all of us deserve. We get to live right now in the
freedom that Christ so freely offers. But we are not yet finally and perfectly
free. That will not happen until Christ returns and declares final victory!
This is a great article by John Piper about the topic. http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/already-decisively-and-irrevocably-free-not-yet-finally-and-perfectly-free.
Jake
and I find ourselves living in this beautiful mess. We have been looking and
searching scripture to find/read and familiarize ourselves with the glory that
Hailey is in, and finding so much joy and comfort in knowing that we will one
day be there too. Our hearts dance thinking that Hailey is with our five other
babies we have lost and yet our hearts break a thousand times over knowing we
won’t get to know Hailey’s heart or what makes her tick. I think we have been
given a glimpse of what God feels like.
The
other thought is that we as humans, created in the image of God, were created
for intimacy, transparency and vulnerability.
Jake and I feel this so much. Our feelings differ each day. Some days
are excruciatingly hard, and others are joyful. We are beyond grateful for the
community that surrounds us and we are both scared and excited to re-submerge
into our daily lives. We are scared to forget Hailey, scared to be needed by
others to grieve, and just scared. But we are also excited. Excited to be with
our church family again, excited to be living life again with the people that
we love, and excited to be with Mason this summer.
So
in an effort to maintain this intimacy that we crave Jake and I want to be
transparent and vulnerable with people. We have thought a lot about what that
looks like with others and we have come up with a few ideas that would be
really helpful in our process of moving forward with everyone. I, Amy, do really well with more specific questions.
I don’t do well with vague questions (“how are you doing?”) I will probably
answer just as vaguely. Truly, ask me anything. Just be prepared. Jake does
better with no questions asked. If he wants to share, he will. If we randomly
start crying with you just go with it as this is something that has changed our
life and we are learning how to walk with a limp.
We
are so grateful for the space and time that we have been given to grieve
together as a family. We aren’t done grieving but are ready to be with friends
and family. We feel carried by Christ
and given His strength to continue on this road. I am sure at some point we
will try to make it on our own strength and I pray we can be pointed back to
needing His strength to carry us. We
love you all and thank you for going on the journey with us, hang on though
because it isn’t done yet –See you soon!