Sweet Tatum

Aaron has had kind of a rougher week.  No big problems, at least big ones that stayed big, but he's had some challenges.  I'll try to write more about that tomorrow.

Right now, my heart is full and breaking for a friend of mine.  Heather was part of the Angel Watch team that came to visit when we got Aaron's diagnosis.  She listened and brought materials on how to tell family, how to accept the awful roller coaster of emotions we were experiencing.  She brought a couple books for us, one for us and the older kids, and one for the younger ones, to help put things into words.  She called and asked how I was doing.  When I found that it was simply impossible to walk into a mortuary and ask about prices for the baby I was still carrying, she gathered that information and brought it to us.  It still sits in a file folder for when we need it someday.  When Aaron was born, she made beautiful hand and foot molds of him.  She truly helped in so many ways.

Yesterday, her own sweet angel grew her wings.  Several years ago, she lost her first born, Trevin, to an awful disorder called Alper's Syndrome.    She then had six more children.  Early this year, her youngest, Tatum, started showing signs of the same disorder.  Yesterday, six days past her first birthday, Tatum returned home to her Heavenly Father.

I got the chance to meet Tatum a few weeks ago.  Even as sick and frail as she was, or maybe because she was so sick and frail, you could feel her tremendous spirit.  Heather stood by me at some of the darkest hours I've experienced so far.  Now, as she is going through her own Gethsemane, again, she still gives me strength.  As I read the words of her blog, Tatum Time, I can feel the pain, but also feel her own strong testimony and spirit. 

Here are the words she wrote to tell of Tatum's passing yesterday:  I think this says it all.

"Our elect little daughter Tatum returned valiantly to her Father in Heaven today having completed with strength and grace all that she was required to accomplish while here. We will be forever grateful for the chance we have had to be her family. We are better having known and loved her. Thanks for all of your prayers. We have felt so loved."

Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  (John 14:27)