May 24, 2018 | 30 weeks I've learned what it means to comfort the grieving only by seeing what has comforted me, and what hasn't, in my own grieving. I've noticed that often times, people do not quite know how to compassionately interact with those grieving and they tend to operate at one of two extremes: either saying nothing at all or saying too much. Sadly, I myself have been at both ends. I used to try and think of just the right verse to send to someone in despair or I would try to be the hero and say the perfect thing. I wanted to be the one who said the right thing at the right time. In retrospect, what I really needed to do was listen to my friend, give her an opportunity to share her heart, and love on her and pray for her. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have a friend whose baby, a twin, died at 4 months in his sleep. I thought it would be too painful for her to talk about, and I had no idea what the "right" thing to say was, so I simply didn...
Halfway through our pregnancy, our baby was diagnosed with a fatal polycystic kidney disease. I spent days scouring the internet looking for information, for another story that I could relate to, but it was hard to find. I'm sharing our story here with the hope that it might help others who find themselves in a similar difficulty. This is a hard diagnosis to receive, but it's comforting to know we're not alone.