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Can't cry hard enough

Late this afternoon, I read that Kelly Frey, a news anchor for WTAE in Pittsburgh, had her baby today. If you don't know the back story, you can read about it here. The gyst of it is early in her pregnancy, Kelly discovered her baby had a major brain defect and likely would die soon after birth. She and her husband decided to terminate the pregnancy, but when they discovered doing so (look, I cannot even write the "a" word) would not be covered by his health insurance, they took it as a sign to keep the baby. A local photographer beautifully captured the birth here, and the pictures are at once heart-warming and gut-wrenching.

Kelly and her husband's difficult situation brings me back to something I think about almost daily (and mentioned in passing in one of my blog posts). This past April, two kids who went to the same preschool Jordan did were killed in a car accident while riding with their father on the way to his house in New York. I had never met the mom until a few months ago when we talked for a couple minutes, nor had I met the kids, but I have been so profoundly affected by what happened to these relative strangers.

Amy, the mom, is on Facebook, and even though we are not FB "friends" I find myself checking out her page almost daily (when I met her, I told her I do this). About a month ago, she started a blog to try to make sense of all this and to get her feelings down. I hope and pray it helps. I give her much credit; I am not sure I could be half as strong as she is, and honestly I would not want to go on. But if nothing else, the tragedy she has gone through and continues to live through every day has given me and so many others a greater appreciation for our kids and what we have.

Tonight I am praying for Kelly, her husband, and their baby. I am also praying for Amy, her ex-husband, and their friends and relatives. And I am praying for everyone else out there who has experienced the loss of a child. How can any of us begin to understand why things like this happen? Probably we can't, but if we have faith, we can tell ourselves that God has a plan, and even if it does not seem like it, God is by our side.

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