Monday, June 14, 2010

Children Losing a Parent

Last week my "original" six children lost their father. He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease two years ago. The children are ages 14-25, none have been married and none have children. There will be many milestones in their lives when they will miss their dad and wish that he could be there; for the first marriage, the first grandchild or a high school graduation. The children, especially my oldest daughter who is 21, have taken care of their ailing father and made all the preparation for the memorial service. They did a wonderful job.

Seeing the "original" kids go through the loss and grief of losing a parent, also has me thinking about the children my husband and I adopted. They, too, had to go through the grief and loss of losing their birth parents, although because of different circumstances. Like the older children, I'm sure there are times in their lives that they think of  their birth parents and wish that they had made different choices. It's pretty heavy stuff.

I am very proud of all my children, and how they have handled the losses in their young lives.

3 comments:

  1. So sorry for your children's loss. It's hard to give up a parent when we are older; I can't imagine having lost my dad when I was young.

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  2. Thanks for the thoughts. This morning I had to put 3 of my big kids on the plane to go back to Hawaii this morning (two live there, and one is just moving there). Not good. I let them know that living across the ocean is just not acceptable - much too far away. Grrr. If we could just keep them young and small enough to stay under foot!

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  3. Yes, I can imagine it would be doubly hard. At least we had ours for a long time.We just need to accept and rely on the Lord for strength, guidance, and comfort. You have wonderful children and we are blessed to have them. XOXO

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