Little Bits of Redemption

I've talked on the blog before about my nephew, who was stillborn 25 years ago - and how much I still miss him all these many years later. Losing a baby, like losing anyone else your heart loves, makes you wonder why...and leaves you feeling a bit incomplete. Processing all of that at ten years of age complicates it even further.

And that's why I loved it so much when last September 18th...on the anniversary of Kirk's birth and death...I found out the sweet little baby Ryan's sister was carrying...was a boy. She and her husband knew about the same kind of loss we experienced in our family - because they experienced it too just a few years ago. This baby, for them, was a bit of God's redemption in their lives. A bit of healing to hearts that still had an open wound of loss.

And for me, the news that the baby would be a boy {though I was so on Team Girl...all their other babies were girls!!!} was a piece of redemption for me. Not that this one replaces Kirk. Not ever. But it was a chance for me to look forward to the snuggles of a baby boy...twenty-five years later.

And so it was that this past Saturday, Ryan and I drove into the parking lot of the same hospital where Kirk was born...up to the same maternity ward...and we met this little bit of redemption, snuggled warm in fleece:

Little Korbin {See? Even down to the first letter of the name...} met his Uncle Ryan:

And his Aunt Bekah...

And he let us know that he may seem sleepy...but he's paying attention:

This little one was so prayed over...so loved...much like his big sister and my nephew...but he gets to stay with us and let us love on him.

And we do.

Little bits of redemption - napping right in my arms: