"...lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Matthew 6:20 ESV)
My dear husband and I now have a precious little treasure waiting for us in Heaven.
On Wednesday, August 7th, we went in for my regular 17-week prenatal checkup to see how the baby was doing, and to our shock and extreme grief, found no heartbeat or sign of life in our little unborn child.
After spending Thursday night in the hospital, I was induced early in the morning on Friday.
At 4:03pm on Friday, August 9th, our precious Mercy Grace Dreher was delivered. She was almost 7 inches long, and weighed 2.6 ounces.
The doctors were quite sure that the cause of death was something called amniotic band syndrome. There were threads of tissue around her little hands and umbilical cord. It is a freak occurrence, and not caused by anything I did or didn't do, and can't really be prevented or predicted.
Nate and I were able to hold her for awhile, and then a nurse took pictures of us with her.
She was so perfect. Her little toes and fingers had the cutest little nails on them. Her tiny mouth was open a bit, and I believe we could see her little tongue. We could see her little eyes beneath her transparent lids. She had long little arms and legs. She was completely there. All she needed was more time to grow.
But God saw fit to take her home, instead of giving her that time. We will never understand why God chose to take our first child from us. Nate and I miss our little daughter tremendously. We mourn that she will never call us "mommy" or "daddy", never give us hugs or kisses, never sing or dance for us; and we can never read to her, teach her things, hold her close, cover her with kisses, go on walks with her, or play with her...
But we do know, and rejoice in the fact, that she will never know suffering. Mercy will never see the sin of the world. Never know evil. Never know anything that plagues us here on earth. She is now joyously praising her Creator and dancing at Jesus' feet. We look forward to meeting her when we join her in Heaven someday. Our precious little treasure, Mercy Grace Dreher.
Mercy was wrapped in this little blanket and robe, which made her look even tinier and more precious.
