Megan Dee-Our Beauty Girl

I've been looking forward to today for a few weeks now. This is the day our children, Ken and Lori, and granddaughter, Monica and Dave and I drove down to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis to attend a memorial service for our Beauty Girl and first grandchild, Megan Dee.

It was a beautiful service. The harpist did a beautiful job playing the prelude softly and then again as the names of all the children who had passed on into heaven from July through December, 2009 were read. The attending chaplains provided us with comforting words, scripture references, and quotes from those who have written about profound loss. There was even a time for all the siblings to come forward and hear a story, For Everything There Is A Time, taken from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Holy Bible.

As we sat in the auditorium with other parents, grandparents, siblings, and family members, I was once again keenly reminded that we on earth do not suffer trials that are uncommon to man. As difficult as our loss has been, there were parents participating in the service tonight that lost not only one child, but in some cases twin children. Some of these parents were very young while others were older. There were white families, black families, and Hispanic families in attendance grieving the loss of their children. The one thing everyone had in common was the profound loss of a child in their family's recent past.

Jesus knew before Megan was ever conceived that He would have a special purpose for her life and that she would complete her work here on earth one week to the day before her tenth birthday. He knew how much her mommy, daddy, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin loved her and would miss her. He also knew that as much as we love her and miss her...as big a hole as there is in each of our hearts...we would still choose to have her here for a little while rather than not at all.

Loving Megan has made each of us better people. We understand the frailty of life, that it passes so quickly right in front of our eyes. We understand the feeling of grief...the hole in the pit of our stomachs...the sadness that suddenly comes over us for no apparent reason...the tears that well up in our eyes when they are least expected. We also understand the blessing God gave us when He gave us Megan...her beautiful smile, her interest in people, not "toys or things," her ability to just melt into our bodies when we held her or laid beside her.

Having Megan in our family just may be the most wonderful earthly blessing of our lives. We will hold her memory close to our hearts and will thank our Heavenly Father for her life with our every breath.