Saying Goodbye to a Child in the PICU

And we know that God uses all things together for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

I attended a Memorial service this morning with AaronMatthew for a baby that was only 11 months old when God took him home. From what I know, there wasn't much difference between the other little boy and AaronMatthew.  The were similar in the fact that they both had Down Syndrome. They had the same type of congenital heart defect.

I was first introduced to the child by the Cardiovascular team that was going to do AaronMatthew's open heart surgery. He had a scar from his open heart surgery that was healed. Only, he was still on a respirator. I met the child's mother at Children's Hospital in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit shortly after AaronMatthew's open heart surgery. We talked of the similarities of our son, medications and the care our children was receiving.

Whenever we would see another in passing, we would update another on the conditions of our son's.

My baby got better, and her baby got worse. He just was so dependent on the respirator. Then his kidneys started to fail. Then he needed chest tubes to help with the drainage. I asked her if I could pray over her son and I did. The baby was fighting for his life. She was still hoping to take him home and had a goal of a minimum 2 month longer stay at that time. Last month, she was looking forward to inviting us to her son's first Birthday party.

He fought hard and the Lord took him home.

I know the child is with the Lord. I cannot help but think of AaronMatthew and the day we thought God was going to take him home. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a child.

Her child was such a blessing and showed us all the importance of life and how truly precious it is.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalaties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35;37-39