A mother's love.

warning: much maudlin musings ahead and I'm not sure where I'm going with it either. :)

I came across this last night. Absolutely heartbreaking. I can't even imagine what that must be like. The pictures of the nursery. The pictures of their beautiful angel. Why does this happen? Is there anything sadder than the loss of a baby? She could have been any of us who have blogged our way through our pregnancies. You better believe I went up and hugged my babies. How lucky we are.

This story was still on my mind this morning as we went to our Sunday school class. There are three pregnant women in our class. And two others just had babies, plus us. Yep, that's six babies. You could say there's been a baby boom around there. Our good friends are one of the couples that just had their baby on Thursday. Haven't talked to them yet, but apparently the labor was long and hard and ended in an emergency c-section as the baby's cord was wrapped around his neck. Everybody's fine, thank God. But probably not what they were expecting for the birth of their first child. Yet not an uncommon occurrence either. Childbirth is the first time many of us really come close to experiencing how raw, tenuous, miraculous and beautiful life really is. The possibility of death as close as it has ever been, even as it remains distant. Things happen. You just don't know.

There were two couples in our church who had babies born very prematurely last year. One woman was carrying twins and ended up losing one. The other was born prematurely, but is doing great. She is actually one of the pregnant moms in our Sunday school class. The other couple's baby was born even more prematurely and has lots of health issues. He's been in and out of the hospital. Today, he and his mother were at church for the first time that I've seen them there. The mom was so proud as she held her son close in her arms, an oxygen tube under his nose. She cradled him, rocked him and kissed him through the service as he dozed contentedly. I'm sure that she hasn't let him go since the day he was born. I know I wouldn't if he was my child. Such is a mother's love -- holding on and never letting go as long as our babies need us.