Emerging Courageous online Magazine - Stories
Jenna is God's by Michele Starkey
The following is Jenna's story:
We waited nine months to see her tiny face and hold her tiny hands in
ours. We touched her mother's stomach and felt her tiny body move inside
her mother's womb. It brought smiles to our faces and joy to our hearts at the
thought of a new little baby in the family. Babies bring out the very best
in all of us because babies represent love. Jenna was loved from the very
day that we found out she had been conceived but we would soon find out that her
life was not a life to be shared on this earth. God had greater plans for
Jenna and she was destined to become His. We never had the chance to
welcome her into this earthly world because God called her home long before she
ever took her first breath.
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your
sting?" 1 Corinthians 15:55
It had been an uneventful pregnancy and after we had Jenna's baby shower, her
parents gathered her things and brought them home to prepare her nursery for her
arrival. When the due date approached, we held our breath waiting for the
phone call that announced her birth. But, it was not to be because
something went terribly wrong at the last minute and Jenna entered the world
without a breath in her little body. She had left us long before we had
the chance to welcome her. Yet, in the hospital room that sad and lonely
night, her mother & father and her grandparents held her and kissed her and
gently said goodbye.
"Be merciful to me, O LORD , for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with
sorrow, my soul and my body with grief." Psalm 31:9 (NIV)
Nothing prepares you for a baby's funeral. It is something that will stay
with me for the rest of my life. We all expect to leave this earth for His
kingdom someday and yet, we never expect the very young to depart - especially
not the babies and most definitely not the newborns. I remember feeling
numb as I walked inside and saw the tiny casket perched above the chairs.
I made my way up the aisle, past her grieving parents, and remembered thinking
that Jenna looked like a little bird sound asleep in her nest. A perfect
little angelic face peeked through a bonnet with her tiny body wrapped in her
receiving blanket. She looked too perfect for death to have robbed the
life from her and yet, I knew she was gone. Gone from this earth and
received into His kingdom.We cannot question these things or we would surely
lose our minds. We take solace in the fact that there is a God and He
knows what time we have and how our chapters are to be written. Jenna's
chapter was too short but not without purpose or meaning. We will never
forget her.
There is a disturbing footnote to Jenna's story that I will share with you.
Jenna never took a breath outside of her mother's womb. In spite of the
life she lived inside of her mother, her parents have been denied the issuance
of a birth certificate from the State of New York. Without a birth certificate,
there can be no death certificate. It's as though Jenna never existed.
Recognizing that life exists inside the womb may be controversial in our day and
age. Nevertheless, a child is conceived and lives inside the mother for a
duration of time predetermined by God himself. Conception = Life.
Leaving the Womb = Birth. Jenna was denied her rightful birth certificate.
Would anyone deny that the baby died? No. She lived and then she died and was
denied her death certificate, too. Her parents are entitled to a record of
her life.
Please do not allow the laws to deny her parents their right to the
certificates that told of her birth and her death. You can help the
thousands of parents who are denied birth certificates for their unborn children
each year by contacting your local government offices and finding out their
position on this issue. If your State doesn't recognize stillborn
children, please contact your Senators and government officials to pass
legislation to rectify this injustice. Together we can offer closure to
the grieving parents by recognizing their children's lives and deaths.
Please help us write the true ending to Jenna's story so her life was not in
vain.