Compassionate Friends a Decade+ Later

The end of June and beginning of July, I was in my home area of Virginia with my mom "house-sitting" and helping to care for her friend's plants and goats (who would've ever thought a goat could capture my heart). ;-) We enjoyed visiting with friends and family, eating at favorite places, and seeing the Blue Ridge Mountains that feel like home.

Anyways, as I have written about before, my grandmother attends Compassionate Friends meetings and has for many, many years. She lost her 7th child, my Aunt Rachel, when she was 3 months old, in 1965.

When I was 15 and living in Virginia, I started accompanying my grandmother to her Compassionate Friends meetings. How many people would willingly choose to go to such a sad meeting? CF is a place of support for bereaved parents. Looking back, I wonder why I ever wanted to go, especially at such a young age? But then God whispers to my heart...

"This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see." -Corrie ten Boom

He was preparing me for the future only He could see. He knew that one day, just a few years later, I myself would be a bereaved parent. My grandmother and I would be connected as women who lost their baby girls.

It was strange in a way going back with her to the same church, with many of the same people. It was so familiar, yet so much has changed in the more than a decade since I first attended one of these meetings. I cannot even remember my life before loving Lily.

As we were leaving that night, a gorgeous pink sunset was waiting for us to behold.

It felt like a reminder from Heaven that our baby girls are with Him, awaiting our homecoming.