I wanted this baby.
I had already begun loving this child.
And now there is an emptiness where there should have been anticipation.
There should have been weeks to count.
A heartbeat to hear.
A belly to grow.
A birth to prepare for.
A baby to hold.
Instead, there is grief.
Lord, I do not understand why this happened.
I do not need explanations right now.
I need You.
Come into the place inside me that feels empty.
Receive every tear I cannot explain to anyone else.
Remember the child whose life was so brief but whose existence changed mine forever.
Mary, you carried Jesus beneath your heart. You know the mysterious intimacy between a mother and the child within her. Stay beside every mother grieving a pregnancy that ended too soon.
Joseph, stay beside every father whose grief may be quieter but is no less real.
Blessed Fulton Sheen, intercede for this family.
And Jesus, when we cannot hold the child we loved, hold us.
Until that day when every tear is wiped away and nothing given to You in love is lost.
Amen.