I've had several queries about how our family is doing with the loss of our dear son so I thought I'd give a brief update...

     The grace of God has really been amazing and we are doing well emotionally and spiritually.  We hit quite a snag though when my sweet daughter in law went into premature labor at 23 weeks and delivered a baby boy weighing 1 lb 7 oz and was 12 inches long on July 25th.  This was my first grandchild.  Well kinda.  You see, Gideon (the baby that was born premature) was a twin.  Our first real loss occured on May 20th--just 4 days before our own dear son was born stillborn--my daughter-in-law Hannah had a miscarriage.  We were devastated to say the least.  But when she didn't have the post miscarriage symptoms though she had clearly passed the baby we began to have hope that she might still be carrying another baby.  Sure enough an ultrasound revealed another baby who was strong and healthy!  What a consolation!!  Though we had lost dear Gabriel (what my son and daughter-in-law named the baby that was miscarried) we still had the hope of a grandchild to be born in November as we had planned for.  Then of course just 4 days later I delivered our little (well, not so little really!!) Aaron. 

     It was almost 2 months to the day later when Hannah went into labor and delivered little Gideon at 23 weeks.  We were heartbroken in a deep, bone shattering kind of way with so much loss in so little time.  Losing Gideon was perhaps harder than losing our Aaron as he was born alive and lived for an extraordinary 1 1/2 hours though his lungs weren't formed nearly enough to attempt to save his life. 

     The grace of God has carried us through this valley of intense grief and there were times that we have had serious concern for Hannah as she has struggled with her loss of their two children--her first pregnancy. 

     It was discovered that Hannah had a staph infection.  The doctors did some pretty extensive testing and concluded that she must have been bitten by something (they think that a spider might have been the culprit) that would have caused her womb to be attacked by the staph germs. 

     We are hoping and praying for life to fill her womb again as we are for mine too!  For both of us to have lost our children in this way seems so much like a spritual attack upon our Godly seed. 

     I have posted a few pictures on my homeschoolblogger blog if you would care to head on over there to take a look...  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/weareqf/