Remembrance Service

This afternoon, Kevin and I attended a special service sponsored by the March of Dimes and Henrico Doctor’s Hospital to remember our sweet babies in heaven.  We received the invitation few weeks ago and I managed to put it aside in the busyness of getting ready for our vacation.  When we got back, I found it on my bedside table and Kevin and I decided to attend.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I really wanted to attend.  At this point in our grief journey, I am anxious to do anything I can to remember and honor our sweet Andrew.  The event was at an Episcopal retreat center in our area.  It’s a beautiful location, but I’ve only been there a handful of time.  We were a little late (as usual), so we missed the very beginning of the program.  We walked in during the song “His Eye Is On the Sparrow,” which was followed by a short reading of scripture.  The gentleman (I’m not sure if he was a pastor or not) read the passage in the Gospels where Jesus tells the disciples to let the little children come to him, after they had rebuked  those who brought the children to Jesus.  I immediately was reminded of the verse we had put on Andrew’s marker at the cemetary, especially since we had visited there earlier in the day after church. 

The program was in a beautiful building that looked out over the property.  There were windows in the front and building, so it was hard to not be reminded of the beauty in God’s creation.  It was a great place to hold the remembrance service. 

After the short program, we were invited to walk up a nearby hill where we could see a bench that had been dedicated to all our babies.  A tree had been planted 2 years ago and the bench was in front of the tree.  I told Kevin that I was glad we had another place where we can go to remember Andrew.  At the top of the hill was a pretty large field and I couldn’t help put picture our family spending special times there.  I hope it will be a special place for our family to make memories that also include Andrew. 

We saw one of the families from our support group, so it was nice to see some familiar faces.  We also got to speak with some of the folks at the hospital who were so supportive of us.  One of the women was my nurse after we delivered Andrew.  She worked on the 3rd floor of the hospital which is mostly women who are recovering from “female” surgeries.  They were kind enough to put us up on that floor rather than the floor where the baby nursery was located.  It was nice to see her again and thank her for everything that she did for us.  We also met one of the women who works behind the scenes with the bereavement program.  She called us a couple months after we delivered Andrew to let us know that she’d be mailing us the photos that the hospital had taken.  I’m glad we finally got to meet her in person to thank her for everything she did for us – we treasure those few pictures we have of our little guy.

Just like back in August, everyone was so supportive and asked if we were receiving the support we needed.  I was able to share about the wonderful support group that we have joined.  The hospital is actually beginning a bereavement support group, which is great.  They didn’t have one at the time we were seeking one, but the Lord has totally worked that out.  We are so pleased with our group and it has been so healing for us.

I had planned to leave you with the picture of our sweet boy that the hospital so generously took for us, but we’re having some issues with our scanner.  It’ll have to wait until later I guess.