OUR TINY BLESSING

A few short months I got a call from my son Mark and daughter-in-law Paige. It kind of startled me a little bit because they had been home to visit for the weekend and this was Monday. Paige told me they had something they needed to talk to me about. My mind kind of raced as to what it might be. They seemed to be perfectly happy when they left. Was one of them sick? Had Mark lost his job? Was Paige having trouble at school? "Mom we are going to have a baby". My heart kind of flipped flopped in my chest. This was a happy surprise for me. I ask them if they were OK and they told me they were not expecting to get pregnant this soon and the doctor had told Paige that she might never be able to get pregnant, so they were in kind of a state of shock. John and I told them that if you waited until you had everything in order they might not have a baby.





After a few weeks Paige got over her morning sickness and they became adjusted to the idea of having a baby and you could see the excitement in their eyes. They were in the process of fixing up the spare room for a nursery. An ultra sound at the end of the forth month was unable to tell them if it was a boy or a girl. Another one a couple of weeks later confirmed that they were going to have a little girl. They chose the name Caroline Grace and started buying tiny pink outfits and counting down the months until they could bring their baby home and start their life as a family of three.

We got another phone call last Friday and Mark told me he was on the way to the hospital. Paige had gone into preterm labor and hopefully the doctors could get the labor stopped and with bed rest she would be able to carry Caroline a few more weeks. As the night wore on, Mark called several more times and things were not looking good. We decided to go on to Memphis to be with them and give a little moral support. As the hours wore on it was apparent that Caroline was going to be born too soon. At 2:18 on 2/19 she entered into this world but was just too tiny to survive.

As we all took turns holding this tiny baby each of our hearts broke to think of all the wonderful things that we would never get to experience with Caroline Grace. It was so hard to see Mark and Paige grieving and not be able to take the pain away form them. We all know that somewhere alone the way there will be a blessing from this tiny little life that touched all ours lives.

Caroline Grace is our twelfth grandchild and she will be in our hearts forever.

We love you Maw Maw and Granddaddy.