For Samuel...who just turned three...and lives in heaven.

    I'm reading your story little darling and even though we never met, I love you. 

    I sit here with quiet tears remembering your nineteen days on earth, and the phone call I got that Christmas Eve telling me that you were gone. Sadness fills me knowing how much your Parents will miss every day the things they do not get to experience with you. 

     I know you are in paradise with Jesus, your little body perfect now and growing, and that you experience a joy that none of us on earth will ever know. 

     Your Daddy's words in the book about you go deep inside me and will live there forever. And it makes me happy that they are now being planted into new hearts through this gift that your father has given to the world.     

     Has Jesus told you yet just how much your little life mattered? 

   Can you see your family from heaven? I wonder if you can. If you can know them somehow and feel their love for you.

  Do you laugh as you run chasing butterflies? I bet the butterflies in Heaven are amazing. Can you watch Noah and Mia? I know you'd be so proud of them. 

   And you have a new brother. His name is Christian, but you probably already know that, don't you? He's so cute, isn't he? I bet you feel proud as he accomplishes each new thing?

     Your Mommy is so beautiful, isn't she?  Stunning really. Inside and out. She handled your life and death with such amazing Grace. I've never seen anything like it. 

    And your Father? Well...he's one for the record books. A, one-in-a-million, man of faith that God chose to receive, not one, but three livers. Such sickness and redemption in each of those transplants. I think God saved him so he could be your Daddy. But that's a whole other story.  

     I really really love three-year-old boys and selfishly wish you could come to my house and play with Reed. He's my grandson. He's three too, you know. The two of you would probably climb and chase and make me laugh and crazy all at the same time.  I'd love that so very much. 

    Your Mommy and Daddy suffered greatly over you, but they suffered beautifully too. They praised God the whole time through all their tears and heartbreak. Trusting and having Faith. And they shared that in every text and phone call. 

    Did you get a glimpse of the glory God received on earth from your too-short life little man? Your Dad wrote a blog every day of your 19 days on earth, and on Christmas Eve, went you went home to Jesus, your Father's words had gone around the world. I can't even remember how many countries had heard of you and were praying.

     I had a vision during all of this, in my quiet prayer time, of the sky filled with prayers going up to heaven over you and your family. They lit up the darkness of the night sky so bright, fluttering upward. More than the stars. 

     Ask Jesus about it on your next walk with him. But then again, He's probably already told you. Your life truly was was a gift to the world, little darling. And it brought God so much glory. Wow.  

     I can't wait to meet you one day. And when I do, I'll hug you tight. And it will be deep and long and full of great love.  Until then, you enjoy every minute in Paradise, and tell Jesus that I love him.