My Heart is Heavy

Please pray today for the family of Kayleigh Freeman. She passed away last night at just 11 months old.

I have been following Kayleighs inspirational blog for many many months now. She was born two months after my Bennett was born. She suffered from severe intrauterine growth restriction and was born at 28 weeks weighing only 1 lb. The doctors never thought that she would live, but she did. Not only did Kayleigh survive, but she thrived despite many many obstacles. Kayleigh was the smallest person to ever undergo open heart surgery and survive. She had to have surgery for an infection of her bowels and survived that too. Her parents thought the end was near when she began to experience pulmonary hypertension that the doctors just could not seem to control, no matter what they tried. But she did. She survived and she was on her way home! All she needed to do before she came home was to have a gastrointestinal feeding tube placed so that she could start taking full feedings. But that surgery, a relatively minor procedure in comparison to what she had been through, changed the course. The operation itself went well, but something happened during the procedure that caused Kayleigh to lose all function of her frontal lobe in her brain. The part of her brain that controled her memories, personality, everything that made her who she is, was gone. Her parents never lost faith, always praying for yet another miracle. When it looked like that miracle would not come, her parents began to pray that Kayleigh would be able to come home to the nursery they had prepared for her nearly a year ago to pass away in peace with her parents, brother and sister.

But that was not to be. Last night, the swelling in Kayleigh's brain became too much and she passed away. I am thankful that Kayleigh is no longer in pain, no longer living in the confines of a NICU, no longer attached to so many wires and tubes. She is in God's arms now, where she is perfect and at complete and total peace. But I mourn for her family. There were so many times when Kayleigh beat all impossible odds and they were so hopeful that she would come home and thrive and go on to live a normal life. That this story should end this way, to me, seems so nonsensical.

But I remember back to something very beautiful my friend Veronica said at the funeral of her father, who died very suddenly when we were in college. She said that God must have thought her father was a very special person, and must have a very special plan for him in his heavenly kingdom to take him from her at that time. That is how I feel about Kayleigh. God must have a very special plan for Kayleigh. In the smallest of packages, God was able to show his grace and mercy and power to so many who read her blog. But, lest we not forget that God is not only great when things go well. God is also showing himself to us through her parents. They are in unbelievable pain right now, yet they are still praising God. That is inspirational to see a faith so solid.

Please pray for peace for the Freeman family.