Going to the cemetery where we were planning to bury our son was another dreaded task that was before us. I thought the funeral home visit was hard...ha! This was just as difficult if not MORE difficult. The place where his body would be placed. The place we would have his burial service. We really didn't want to do this.
As we pulled into Cheshire Cemetery, we met a man there named Larry. We had no clue how this process worked. So we just asked him...
"So do we just drive around and pick a spot?"
"Yep, when you find a spot you like, come get me and I'll look at it and see if it's available."
Ok, so he made it sound so easy. Just look over these 80+ acres of land and pick a spot. Hmmm. It seemed daunting, but ok, whatever you say. We started driving and just made the first left turn we came to. We had somewhat of an idea of where we wanted to bury Luke. Under a tree. A big, beautiful tree so that we could sit under it in the Spring and Summer when we came to visit him. A big tree that would drop colorful leaves in the Fall. As we drove down this first driveway, we came to a spot at the end of that drive that looked like a good place. It wasn't too crowded with headstones, it was by a big tree. We got out of the car and looked at it closer. My mom was with us, so she looked at the spot too. As we got closer, my mom noticed something about the grave right next to the spot we were looking at. She says...
"Oh wow, look. There's another little boy buried right here. He was about 2 weeks old."
We looked closer at the headstone. It was another baby. A little boy named Noah. For some reason, the idea of Luke being buried next to another little boy brought us some comfort. We wondered what happened to this little boy. Were his parents grieving like we were? Maybe we would meet this family one day as we visited our sons. We decided this was the place we wanted. We went and got Larry and took him to this grave and asked if it was available. It was! We reserved the plot site.
When we got home, Justin decided to look online and see if he could find more info on this boy Noah. He looked up the last name on Facebook in hopes to maybe find his parents. We found a woman with the same last name, that was in the area. Come to find out, Justin had 8 mutual friends with this lady. Wow, that's ironic. Could this be Noah's mother? One of the mutual friends was our photographer, Anne Marie, who ended up photographing Luke's birth. Wow! I texted Anne Marie right away asking if she knew this woman. She called me right back and asked how in the world I knew this lady. I said....
"Justin and I were just at the cemetery and came across a grave of a little boy...." and before I could even finish my sentence she says...
"Oh my word, did you find Noah's grave???"
Goosebumps. Could this be? Turns out yes, we had mutual friends with this family who lost their little boy 3 years ago! Noah and Luke were connected. Turns out, Noah's mother is close friends with our photographer and several others at Worthington Christian, where Justin works. We were blown away. What are the chances that we would not only pick a spot next to another baby boy, but come to find out several of our friends KNOW this family personally! God was so good to connect us with this family. It brought us comfort knowing this. After such a difficult morning picking out a gravesite, God saw fit to allow this amazing thing to happen. The story then got more interesting....
Back in September when we found out about Luke's condition, Justin went out to lunch with his boss and co-worker. They went to Chili Verde. When they were done eating, Justin's boss Kevin went to talk to someone he knew who worked in the back of the restaurant. He told Justin that the guy he was saying hello to had also lost a baby boy a few years back. Kevin shared our story with this man. Kevin said the man broke down and wept because the emotions were still very raw from losing his son. He told Kevin to tell Justin that he would be praying for us, for our family. Come to find out, this man at Chili Verde was Noah's father.
Amazing, isn't it? On a day that brought so much sadness, the Lord saw fit to connect two families through the loss of their little boys. We haven't met this family face to face yet, but we hope to soon. We share a common bond. We lost our boys. Our precious sons. I remember thanking God that night for allowing this to happen. God is indeed involved in all the small details of our lives. He orchestrates everything just perfectly. Since that day, I have prayed for this family. I've prayed for their hearts as they grieve the loss of Noah. Even though it's been several years, I'm sure the pain is still just as strong as the day they lost him.
As I sit here and write this, I think about Noah and Luke running through the fields of heaven together. Playing together. Sitting at the feet of Jesus together. Worshipping their Creator together. Forever.
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