About Gabe:

We called Gabe our miracle baby because we didn’t think we could conceive. God had given us Addie through adoption, and we were overjoyed when we found out we were pregnant with Gabe. Valerie shared the news with tears of joy and we celebrated with family that weekend on a camping trip. Gabe was born on January 19, 2022. 

Gabey Baby, as Addie named him, was a joy. Always smiling and curious, he loved exploring and playing with anything he could get his hands on. Walks in his red wagon, playing with his mom’s hair, and enjoying worship music were some of his favorite activities. He was always smiling, always curious, and always willing to snuggle and be held. He adored his mom and loved his big sister, Addie, who doted on him and played with him constantly.

Gabriel fit right in with his cousins and loved spending time with family. On a cruise to the Caribbean a week before he went to Heaven, Gabe became the ship’s little celebrity, delighting everyone with his joyful spirit. At church, he was often passed around, spreading happiness wherever he went. His life brought laughter, delight, and true happiness to our home.

Gabriel was a joy and wonder to everyone he met, especially to his Mom, Dad, and sister. His little life has been used by God to better so many people and point others to the hope of heaven, promised through God’s Son. Gabe’s legacy, memory, and touch will endure and be a lasting monument to the glory of our God. He will always be our miracle baby. His presence in our lives was a token of the undeserved goodness and grace of God. Although we will limp with this wound for the rest of our lives, there is coming a day when we will lay eyes upon sweet Gabriel again and sit beside him at the great table of the Lord. He has gone on ahead to save us a seat. Until then, we are waiting, watching, and weeping in hope.

Scripture that encouraged us: 

The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.” This promise of an “eternal weight of glory” has sustained us in our grief in three ways.

First, we are encouraged that God’s infinite wisdom will be revealed, bringing harmony where earthly reconciliation seems impossible. Heaven will heal all sorrows, wiping away every tear and ending death, sorrow, and pain. 

Second, knowing that heaven will transform our painful realities into glorious ones sustains us. Paul says our trials prepare us for an eternal weight of glory, and our agony will be turned into joy the moment we arrive in heaven.

Third, this knowledge of a glorious future helps us endure and persevere now. Even as we feel we are wasting away, we do not lose heart because we fix our gaze heavenward. Focusing on the eternal sustains and stabilizes us in our grief.

How we’ve seen God’s faithfulness:

C.S. Lewis famously quipped, “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it?” Brothers and sisters, the rope has held. Jesus Christ has been tried, tested, and found to be trustworthy. We have been sustained and held by the powerful arms of the One who has the whole world in His hands.