It may seem weird to title a blog post, "Remembering Aleigha", since it's only been two months since we experienced her loss. While I know we will never forget our precious Aleigha, life does have a way of swallowing us up in busyness to the point that unless we are intentional about remembering all the ways that God showered us with His goodness and faithfulness in the midst of our loss, we risk forgetting.
Thus, as we approach this Sunday, September 27, the day Aleigha was scheduled to be born, I will share with you several blog entries that are from a journal entry I did titled, "Ways God Has Blessed Us In the Midst of Our Pain & Grief."
These are things I wrote down during the week we learned of Aleigha's earthly fate, her birth, her death and her burial. These are things I wanted to remember and want to share with you so that you can see God's goodness as he worked in our situation.
Ways God Has Blessed Us In the Midst of Our Pain & Grief
1. All the Blog and Facebook comments and texts sent to us that brought us encouragement to know that we were not alone.
2. All the people who were praying for us. We could feel it. It allowed us to not only make it through the week but it has allowed us to have an indescribable peace in the midst of the greatest storm we have ever faced.
3. The way God prepared me Sunday night by giving me a clear word to take “one day at a time.” I didn’t know how much I would need to cling to this truth in the coming week.
4. A friend of ours offered to coordinate people to bring meals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for 2-3 weeks. What a blessing!
5. The Lord used Haley to make us smile and laugh throughout the week. In fact, her name means, “gift” and in the midst of our pain, we realize all the more how much of a gift she is to us. Several things she did this week that blessed us were:
a. At one point, as we were driving down the road, she asked, “Is Jesus in the Sky?”
b. On my parent’s boat on Sunday (the day after the funeral), she pointed to the sky and said, “Hi Aleigha!”
c. She was perfect at the funeral service and towards the end when our friends, David and Theresa Cummings were singing “Give Me Jesus” she came over to me and lay in my lap putting her head on my shoulder.
d. As Rachael released the pink balloon at the end of the service, signifying that we were releasing Aleigha to go and be with her Heavenly Father, Haley looked up at the balloon as it drifted away and said, “Bye Aleigha!”
6. On Saturday night (the day of the funeral) my dad saw a rainbow in the sky. We couldn’t help but wonder if God could have been giving him a promise (as he gave to Noah) that he wouldn’t allow this to ever happen to us again.
I'll share more ways God has blessed us in the midst of our pain & grief in Part II of this mini-series tomorrow.
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