A Story for Those Who Have Experienced Loss

This is a story I read on another person's blog talking about the loss of a baby through miscarriage. It was really encouraging to me and although I shed tears when reading it, I can't help but feeling eased by the thought of our sweet child in heaven.

Derek is the nephew of a dear friend. I met him 7 years ago when he was 11 or 12 years old. He came over to dinner with them because they were babysitting him while his mom was on her honeymoon. Derek and his dad were in a horrible car accident 3 years prior, and his dad had died. Derek, himself, died 3 times (at the scene and in the ambulance). Paramedics were able to revive him each time, but he ended up in a coma that lasted for 2 months. His mom never left his side in ICU the whole time. He was all she had left. and she prayed he would wake up. and worried how she would tell him about what had happened. Would he even remember the accident?

One day, about 2 months later, Derek woke up. Before she could even tell him about the accident or ask him anything, he told her "Dad's in Heaven". She was shocked that he knew that! When she asked him how he knew, he told her he'd been to Heaven 3 times. The first time he went, he saw his dad there and talked with him. The second time he went, he told her he met his 4 brothers and sisters. He described them, what they were like, and that there were two boys and two girls. She was speechless. See, Derek was an only child. She'd had 4 miscarriages, early on, before he was born. She'd never told him about them. (tears again) The third time he went to Heaven, he met Jesus. He showed Derek around, and then told him he had to go home, and be with his mom, that it wasn't his time to come There yet. But He wanted Derek to tell everyone he met about This Place, and what It was like...

When I met Derek, he'd just finished interviewing with 20/20 to share his story. But his mom had decided at the last minute not to air it for fear they would diminish what he had experienced. Derek was a lively boy, with scars on his face and body from the plates and screws that had been put in during multiple reconstructive surgeries. His aunt told me he would at times be humming a song in the car, on the way somewhere, and his mom would ask him what it was because it was so pretty. He always told her, "I don't know the name of it... it's one of the ones I heard the angels singing while I was in Heaven".

I tell you his story for this reason friends: I asked him one time when he was running by me, to PLEEEASE tell me what did Jesus look like? He was too busy playing to entertain me. I even offered to pay him five dollars if he'd tell me! Nope, too busy, not now. I begged him later to tell me what his brothers and sisters looked like (fighting back tears, trying to act cool and nonchalont, imagining my own unborn babies up there). He said, "they looked just like us, like kids, running around and playing!"

Ladies, I'm sorry for the long comment. But I had to share this because my heart is beating out of my chest as I type. For those of you out there who've lost a little one before you got to hold them, Derek's story has brought me more hope and encouragement for what my babies are doing right now as I live my life here without them, and the eternity we'll have together one day when I WILL hold them, than I could ever put into words here.