I wish it could just stop

Yet another friend, Natalie, (from the Catholic forum I belong to) has lost her baby. She delivered him on April 17, exactly 6 months after I lost Bernadette, exactly 3 months after my friend Danielle lost her son, William. My birthday is on the 17th of August, but I'm beginning to seriously resent that day of the month.

So, please pray for her son, Benjamin, and for the consolation of his family on earth. Oh how she must be aching for him right now. It was only after I had lost Bernadette that I knew what a shattered heart truly felt like. It's such a nightmare.

My family has been through a lot this past year. Just to give you an idea, there were 5 of us cousins (including my sister and I) who were pregnant at the same time in 2007. One suffered a miscarriage, two of us had stillbirths about 6 months apart, one of them had an emergency C-section and almost lost her life (and her son had his cord wrapped around his neck several times but thankfully survived), and the other delivered twins, one of which has a disabled arm. The two cousins who had lost their babies are pregnant again, and I want to ask you to please pray for the safety of their precious children and for peace of mind of the parents. We aren't pregnant yet (we pray that someday God will give us that gift again), but I can only imagine how terrifying it is to go through the entire 9 months after having experienced such a tragedy. In some ways, I feel like my womb is not the safe place it should be. So much is out of our control as mothers, and those who have lost feel incredibly vulnerable and scared. I have strong faith that God will bless these moms with screaming babies at the end, but I'm sure that doesn't change the anxiety they must feel.

God Bless you both! I pray for you constantly!