Rest in Peace, Jeremy

I write the following post with tears.

About a month and a half ago I posted about Jeremy. He was an 11 year old with a rare form of cancer. This morning, at 10:37, he was perfectly Healed and is at rest with the Lord.

Please pray for his mom and dad, and his triplet sisters, Laurel and Claire. My heart is breaking for this family. I cannot imagine the pain they must be in, nor the hard things they have to face. Like, what do you do with his bedroom? All his stuff?

Father, please be with this family. Comfort them with your peace. Surround them with your love, as well as with friends and family.

Jeremy

Jeremy Wilson is an 11 year old triplet boy (has two sisters). His mom, Karen, belongs to my mothers of multiples club. I have never met her, as her kids are four years older than mine and she stopped attending meetings before I started. Jeremy was diagnosed with cancer a year ago. I’ve been following his story via CaringBridge for most of that time. Karen just posted a few days ago about his cancer growing and being very bad. While she didn’t say it, I feel like this is the beginning of the end. His options for treatments have pretty much run out. He’s even been in on the non-mainstream stuff already and his cancer grew instead of shrunk.

I have lost a child. I know the heartache and incredible loss that goes with it. But I lost my son at birth, when everything was still in the future. To lose an 11 year old, after having those 11 years of memories and plans and hopes and dreams….my heart cannot fathom that kind of pain. We call our children triplets, although they are quadruplets, because it is so much easier than explaining and dealing with the pain over and over. How will the Wilson’s handle it? With God’s help, they’ll manage, but I still can’t imagine the pain.

My heart goes out to them, as do my prayers. If you are a praying type person, please pray for the Wilson family.

The Internet’s Effect

I’m the first to admit that I’m addicted to the Internet. I can sit down at my computer and hours can literally go by without me noticing. I can watch videos on YouTube, catch up with my mothers of multiples or born in March boards, or my new parent-2-parent board. I often read blogs. Lots of blogs. And many times those blogs will put a link to another blog and I am hooked yet again into another story, another life.

Today one of those blogs was not a happy, funny, story. Melanie Miller, a precious, beautiful 13 year old Mennonite girl from Delaware, died from brain cancer. I found out about her from another blog of a 10 year old triplet boy in my mothers of multiples club who also has cancer. I started reading about Melanie and praying for her and her family. Today I prayed that God would introduce her to Connor.

I don’t pretend to understand why children die. Especially of cancer, which is a cruel, horrid, suffering-laden death. God created a perfect world. We chose sin instead of perfection. It seems the further we get away from that perfect–the more years away–the worse the suffering gets.

As I read another blog tonight, yet another link was offered and I followed it to a woman just returning from a trip to visit her Compassion International child in Uganda. We sponsor a boy in the Philippines. Anyways, her heartache spoke to me. She showed a music video by Sara Groves that made me cry and repent of my dissatisfaction with my STUFF. I struggle so much with being thankful and content with my home. I want bigger, better, nicely painted, a garage, cleaner, newer cabinets….the list goes on and on until God surely must want to throw up. “Rocks in my Dryer” talked about her CI child, who is an orphan living with sick relatives and whose home doesn’t have a fourth wall because it fell down after a lot of rain. And I’m griping about PAINT?!

Forgive me, Lord! And help me to hug my children tight in thankfulness for their continuing health instead of growing so impatient that I yell at them.