In Memory

Noa Joelle 7/10/2003
~rest, Jehova is God

Chaim Hillel 3/20/2007
~life, praise God

Itiel Dzoe 5/28/2007
~God is with Me, life

October 15 is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and although I'm not usually one for "awareness" issues, this is one I really feel is worth bringing up.

The most important thing I think I have to say on the subject is that when a woman miscarries a pregnacy it is easy to think of it in very detached terms. Phrases such as "the miscarriage", "barley pregnant", "the embryo"and "most women wouldn't have known they were pregnant" only serve to mask what really happened. The death of a child. Yes, that child wasn't fully formed. Yes, there was no way to know gender. True, it is most likely that there was something fundamentally wrong that kept the baby from surviving. But it was still a life lost. Treating it as simply a heavy and painful period does no one any favors. Either life begins at conception or it doesn't. And we either value that life or we don't. And in my mind the case is extremely clear cut- life begins at conception and I love my children dearly, no matter how long they live.

Which is why we have named the children that we lost. Most people will never know the names besides our family, and not even all of them. But I think it is important all the same. It acknowledges the life, which I believe honors God. And it gives us a way to talk about our children in a more personal way than "1st miscarriage...2nd misscarriage...." and so forth. We will see these children again. And for that we rest for we know that Jehova is God. We Praise God for the life which was created, and we know that our children are with God-that it was He who gave them life. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, Blessed be the name of the Lord.