Remembering Jessica today

Today is the day we call "Remembering Jessica Day". It sounds better than "the anniversary of her death," don't you think? It's hard to believe, but it's been 14 years today.

I have been looking at lots of photos of Jessica this week and enjoying the fun memories. On Facebook, I've had a lot of encouraging words and comments from friends who knew Jessica and friends who've gotten to know us more recently than that. All I can say is, "Wow! The body of Christ is an amazing thing!". Even though the day isn't weighing me down this year in the same way that it has in past years, it's so great that we have so many who miss her with us, even if they didn't know her in person.

This summer when we were in Michigan, we stopped briefly at Jessica's grave. She's buried next to my dad's parents and my cousin Margie who died when she was only 12. I'm always struck by how each gravestone makes some reference to being with God in heaven. It's a great reminder of where they really are!

I'm going to add some links here for you, if you'd like to get to know Jessica's story a bit better. Here's her birth story, here's a story I wrote about her death (it's a tear-jerker), and here are my thoughts 3 years ago, when the anniversary fell on Tuesday, the day of the week that Jessica died on. The feelings for me were a bit more "raw" that year.

Having Jessica die was so completely unexpected, something we'd never imagined could have happened. It hurt so much, and all we could do was to cling to God to just make it through those many tough days. Through it all, we really felt God's love wrapped around us, largely through the members of His body coming alongside us and caring.

It's amazing how much we can encourage each other just by caring and showing each other God's love!