Skip to main content

Missing a Piece to the Puzzle

“Aww, did she hit herself?”  the clerk asked Chad, as Annestyne’s massive facial bruise unveiled itself. She had bopped her head on the swing that’s hanging from the tree at the beach house, and it was nearly impossible to miss. 

“Mommy, can you get this off for me?” Hasting asked, as he handed me his new cool pair of shades. 

And then it happened. The one question parents for some reason can’t seem to escape, no matter how many kids you have in your family. Except it cuts you like a knife when you’ve recently lost a child. 
“Are you going to have anymore kids?”. 

I guess he thought I didn’t hear her, so I never brought it back up. I didn’t even hear what his response was. 

I carry around a physical scar, but no one sees it. 
We have another child, but no stranger knows it. 
Strangers don't even know he existed, unless we bring him up.
Escaping reality is next to impossible. 

Every time Sadler isn’t acknowledged it stings, more now than it ever will. 
And as time moves forward, and lives go on, grief starts becoming more isolating and internal. The cards stop coming. The texts stop being sent.

Everyone else moves forward, but you don't.
Every once in a while you have a brief moment where things feel normal, and then every so quickly the reality sets in.
You're missing a piece to your puzzle.

You want to have a good time, but then life creeps back up on you.

I had a baby.
Then I didn't.

I want the whole world to know he existed.
Even if it were only for a brief moment in time.
We don't have 3 kids.
We have 5.
I am the 1 in 4.
I am pregnancy loss.
I am infant loss.
My babies have wings.

Three days after Sadler died we visited the barber shop for the boys to get their hair trimmed before the memorial.
The barber asked the same thing.
Any more kids?
"You have 3, you need 4 to make it even."
"You have 2 girls, you need 2 boys."

Little did he know. 


That sting will always be there. No matter how much the time passes.


In today's devotions, it said:


"Pause before responding to people or situations, giving My spirit space to act through you".


1 Corinthians 10:13 says "God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear".


In these moments, I remember this. 
He will always provide endurance.











Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Setbacks Over Progress. 

Tonight I was going through my phone, looking through old notes I had left myself in my phone. I noticed one from December 31, 2017. It was before 2018 hit us, and 10 days before our world started to  turn completely upside down.  It was a list of all the good things and accomplishments of 2017.  “Became pregnant with our fourth child”.  Just like that.  I remembered something I’ve been doing a LOT of recently. I’ve caught myself if the good moments, reflecting, but not in a good way. I look at old photos, from before Sadler, or before his pregnancy took a high risk turn, and I just bask in those moments of happiness. I try so hard to remember the happiness i felt in those photos. And just like that, hello guilt.  Almost 5 months has passed, and while there is no routine of how grief plays out, you begin to realize patterns and ways of how you deal and cope with all things associated with your grief. But as the time goes on, you start to notice thi...

UnSubscribe 

It’s been almost 5 months.  Yet I still haven’t been able to fully unsubscribe from all the junk emails from all the hideous baby crap. There is SO MUCH.  “Buy one get one, one daily only @ Motherhood!” “25% off at Buy BUY baby”  “8 weeks postpartum Lindsay”  Mama Natural “Today’s the day! It’s Your due date” — enter in the name of of of the one million baby related websites there are these days.  Every time, EVERY SINGLE TIME, I go to check my emails, another one squeezes it’s way in. And when that happens, another very-detailed, very sad memory of a moment has an open window.  Letters in the mail. Social security cards. Insurance information. Accidental bills mailed to your address showing every procedure and every dime, and every detail of your dead sons expenses.  Will it ever stop? Is there a button for “un-subscribe” for all these constant reminders that your baby is dead. Will my phone EVER forget to auto-correct the words Infant loss, N...

My Honest Answer 

"Oh I'm in pieces, it's tearing me up, but I know a heart thats broke is a heart that's been loved"..."When God takes you back he'll sing hallelujah you're home". Today we went to church, for the first time since I'm not even sure when. It's also where we had the funeral of our son. We got in the car, and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle pulling back in to that church. I think it's partially why I was secretly hoping that when we DID return back to church it would be elsewhere. But, in all fairness, I've grown very fond of Pastor Daniel and the whole congregation of that church. So I decided not to speak up to my husband about visiting a different church, because I knew once we got inside I would be happy I chose to come back to one of the places we said our final goodbyes to our son. We pulled in, and my eyes did swell with tears, but I held them back. Flashbacks from the funeral just kept cre...