Repost - Requiescat in Pace +++ Faith Zion Rogness

***The below blog post is from a few years ago. I was recently notified that it hadn’t transferred over to here when I established this new blog. My hope of reposting this blog is that it can be of help to anyone else who suffers from miscarriage.***

The text came from my wife at 9:35 a.m. on October 1, 2021, who was at her second checkup appointment, “They’re struggling to find the heartbeat.” I asked her, “Do you need me to come?” She said no, not yet.

The next thirty minutes seemed like an eternity. I kept looking at my watch, pulling my phone out of my pocket, waiting for the message – “They found the heartbeat and everything looks great!”

The text never came.

My phone rang, and as I picked up, the tears of my wife could already be heard, “There’s no heartbeat and the baby is only measuring nine weeks.” The baby should have been measuring eleven weeks.

I wanted to break down and cry, but my two oldest children were preparing to announce to their classes their mother was having a baby. So after hanging up the phone, I raced down to our church's school to grab our children out of class before they could make their joyous announcements of a new Rogness baby – I made it, but barely.

One of the saddest things I could think of doing, telling my children they would never meet their little brother or sister in this world.

As the day progressed, the children had many questions. Unfortunately, my wife and I had few answers.

Our third child, who is three, struggled to comprehend that the baby had died. He asked if funeral homes have cribs for the babies that die. It broke our hearts to hear his questions; he was struggling with death (as any three-year-old does) and searching for answers.

Our three-year-old, however, did recognize something the world has not always seen – our child within the womb was just as human and alive as the rest of us. As the Psalmist wrote, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13)

Our earthly answers to this present darkness and tribulation are shallow. Our tears and hurt are deep.

What we know is that our child was alive in the womb of my wife. The child's name is Faith Zion Rogness. And we have placed the body of Faith into the earth just as the Church has done for every other Christian that dies in Christ Jesus. We do this because we believe our Lord is merciful, and on the last day, He will return to gather His children to Himself. (John 14:3)

Note: In naming our baby, our children selected the first and middle names.