Tonight I received a much needed reality check. While browsing Facebook posts with my husband, we saw that someone he went to high school with lost his baby daughter this week. His post read: "How can she just be gone???" As we read down through friends and family offering their condolences, and posts by the little girl's mom and dad, the weight of the loss hit me full force, and I starting weeping. The family also has a little boy, and he doesn't understand that his little sister will never come home. It appeared that she got sick the beginning of this week, and by yesterday she was gone. Of course I think if this happened to my family, my little 18 month old, or our new baby. I can't imagine the terrible feeling of waking up to a real-life nightmare everyday after a loss like that. The joy that my baby brings me suddenly being ripped from my life would be nearly unbearable. With a little more searching, I found out that this little girl had actually been through 2! heart transplants since her birth, and had been fighting ever since to regain a normal healthy life. She was doing well before she suddenly fell ill. The whole story is such a tragedy.
While this news immediately saddened both my husband and I, it was a blessing to be reminded that a loss such as this can happen to any of us, and if we don't pay attention to what's important TODAY, we may never have a chance to do it TOMORROW. I am so thankful for a God who knows what He's doing, and will take small children into His arms and love them in Heaven until we can get there too. In the meantime, we need to live a little fuller and love a little harder. We need to always remember what's truly important in our lives, and make sure that we take every opportunity to enjoy every smile, feel every pain, dance every dance, and sing every song. My prayers are with this family who is going through extraordinary distress tonight, and I know that their daughter's fight in life and their loss will not be in vain.
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