Words of Hope from a Grieving Mother

God has made his path straight and clear before us in the last couple days. Our little Elias Paul Schaefer was born at 3:41pm on Monday, May 19, 2008. He was 15.7 oz and 11 inches long. He was 21 weeks old and so did not survive delivery but he was a precious joy to hold and smile at and cry over. He was a healthy little baby but my cervix fell open on its own and didn't hold him in there and so he was born. Born in God's perfect timing. Erik got to tell me that he was a boy and just hours earlier we had picked out names for the baby we knew might be born soon. Elias is the Greek form of Elijah and Erik pointed out that Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven (2 Kings 1:11-12). Erik chose the name Paul because in 1 Corinthians Paul called himself "one untimely born" (15:8). We held, bathed, sang to, loved and committed our little Elias to the Lord. We are thankful for all the time we had with him. Feel free to ask us about him. We love talking about our son.
Isaiah 26:3-4 is the verse our church is memorizing this week and it has become very dear to us: "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD God is an everlasting rock."
We still plan on moving to Louisville, KY in August for Erik to finish seminary. The events of the past couple of days are all from God and his plans for us. We are trusting in him with all of our heart (Proverbs 3:5).

This is from my friend Anna - she wrote it this morning, about 19 hours after losing little Elias. Please continue to pray for their family. Thank you.