His Days Numbered Three

We had a fun day visiting with family and going up to see the babies, but we are sad to say that it would not last. Our doctor came in to tell us that Isaac had a massive bleed in his brain this afternoon. His little body had been working so hard with so much help from a variety of medications and machines that he had always been at risk for complications such as this.

The more we learned from our doctor, and the more we talked it over, the right thing to do was to let him go peacefully rather than subject him to a futility of treatments. His entire brain was irreparably damaged by all the blood, and it wouldn't have been long before his body exhausted itself and his other organs shut down.

We gathered the family again, as we had done with Matthew, so we could all hold him and love him and pray for him as he passed on. He was able to finally breathe a few breaths on his own, and he did not suffer or struggle as he went.

It is so hard and so unexpected. For Matthew we had four months to prepare, but for Isaac only three days. A parent sees the potential of a life and has growing hopes for his family, and these things are forever changed. A parent has a love and a bond uniquely for each child. God has carved out spaces in our hearts for our sons, and there is nothing to fill the void but the Lord Himself.

2 Samuel 12:22-23
He said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live.' But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me."

Psalm 139:13-16
For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

Ecclesiastes 3:1,2,4,6,11
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven--
A time to give birth and a time to die...
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance...
A time to search and a time to give up as lost...
He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.