Monday, August 31, 2020

15.

From us still here to you in heaven, happy 15th birthday, dear Kyrie!! What your family and friends would give to see you at this age!

This year, I see close friends who have daughters beginning their high school experiences, and can only wonder what it would be like for you. What you'd choose for your first-day-of-school outfit, how you might help your little sister with her hair, what your favorite subject might be. Time is a blurry, tricky thing, especially on birthdays. Grateful for every second while simultaneously wanting more. Gifts arrive and gifts grow and then gifts go. Sometimes it feels very far from when your were earthside, and at other times I am reminded that heaven really isn't as far as we think it is. 

15. There's a line in that song that says "there's still time for you." Our humanity can only fathom finite time, what's here and now vs. what is not, it seems. But I love how God works in the unseen, how He flips things around in the most beautiful ways. For you, there is time--for all time. 

Every year, I roll in the deep end of memory with your birthday post. The birthday wish every single year is that you would be right beside your parents and siblings for these milestones, traditions and rites of passage. It still feels very unfair, and I still can't change it. But you are still so loved. Loved for the time you had, for the gifts you gave and for being a reason to live with an eye on eternity.

Happy birthday, sweet girl! We love you from here to heaven!

Monday, April 6, 2020

The Day the Angels Came

The Day the Angels Came
a grandpa's prayer and poem for Kyrie Dawn

Wednesday, April 4, the day we heard of the explosive growth of the tumors

Alas! O, Lord what is it that I hear?
Is it Your angels coming for our Kyrie Dawn?
O, please Lord, keep them at bay--
If just for one more day.

Thursday, April 5, Holy Thursday

O, Lord, what is this I hear?
Is it that You need another little angel to be near?
O, please Lord, please Lord, don't take our Kyrie dear.
Could You please keep Your angels away,
and we could have her just one more day?

Friday, April 6, Good Friday

O, precious, sweet Jesus, is this the day?
No, no, dear Lord, not today--
This is Your day that You died to save.
Again, please Dear God, let us be selfish
and keep sweet Kyrie another day.

Saturday, April 7, Holy Saturday Easter Vigil

Thank you dear God in heaven
for yet another precious day--
For we all know things will be done your way.
Little Kyrie Dawn is fighting so very hard--
Yesterday she three her ball three times
till her tiny arm got tired.

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God's love entrusts her here,
Ever this day be at her side
To light, to guard, to rule to guide. Amen.

Sunday, April 8, Easter Sunday

Dear God in Heaven, Your angels came last night,
As we all knew that someday they might.
They came around the hour of seven
to take our precious one to her
special place in heaven.
Sweet Jesus, we know that you, too, love the little ones,
so to You we give You our little Kyrie Dawn--
And in the end, it is always Your will that will be done.


Amen.

Love,
Papa

originally published April 7, 2007