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The Memorial Service
for:
Jeremiah Daniel
Irons
March 12,
2001
and
Josiah David
Irons
April 7, 2001
Our Blessed Arrows, Now In God's
Quiver
Officiated
by:
Rev. Rodney
Priebe
The gathering of family and friends was very comforting.
We counted THIRTEEN children present for the celebration of my twins
very short life!
This is our friend Candice Arndt who sang a wonderful rendition of
Wayne Watson's
HOME FREE. (it was a very windy day!!)
This tiny little casket dwarfed my sons tiny little body!!
Josiah was all of half an inch long, but his tiny body was perfectly
formed.
You could clearly see his head, eyes, spinal column, heart and
liver.
I praise God for Josiah was fearfully and wonderfully made!
The only "family portrait" we will ever have with Josiah this side of
Heaven. But we are thrilled to know that the only part of
Josiah
that is burried in the ground is his earthly body. His spirit
lives eternally with Christ! Though we mourn his earthly
passing,
we will celebrate a homecoming yet to happen as we will one day see
both Josiah and Jeremiah face to face...
along with our other children that have preceded our twins in death
through miscarriage:
Samuel Zechariah, April 1986
Hannah Grace, December 1999
Michaela Dianne, December 2000
and now Jeremiah and Josiah...face to face with JESUS!! Since
that time in 2001 we have also lost Caitlyn Elizabeth in June 2002 and
Michael Gabriel Jan 2003.
Joshua, Laura and Christopher placing flowers on their brother's
grave.
They truly understand Josiah is NOT in the casket, but with
Jesus...
and that is the source of their joy.
This is my midwife Kathy Rateliff and my mom, AKA "MEMA"
These are our dear friends Rodney and Elizabeth Priebe
and their 5 blessings.
Rodney officiated the memorial service for both Jeremiah and Josiah.
Uncle Steve and Aunt Rhonda
The Good Shepherd Memorial
This is the monument in the "baby land" section of the cemetary.
Preparing the grave....
Josiah's earthly body put to rest at last.
This has been a very difficult time for us. Many people have
asked us why we went through all the trouble and expense of having a funeral
for a miscarried baby. My only response to that question is "what else
were we supposed to do?" Our only other options were to let the hospital
send the baby to the lab where we we told the baby would be thrown away in a
trash can, or to take the baby home with us. Well, as any parent would
probably guess, I was not about to let anyone throw my child's lifeless body
into a trash can! The though was simply repulsive to me!
I hope that by our heart ache and experience that we can help people
truly understand the "sanctity of life" by how we treated the body of our
miscarried child. No parent that had a child die after birth would EVER
consider throwing their child's body in a trash can. Even in death,
there is some kind of desire to protect the physical body of your child.
A trash can is no place for the miracle and gift of life that God
gives...
no matter how brief that life may be.
Josiah was perfectly formed. You could clearly see his head,
brain, eyes, spine, and his heart and liver. There was no denying that he was
FULLY HUMAN and deserving of treatment as a human in his death and burial. We
have never had to burry any of our other miscarried children. In the
process of the miscarriage, their bodies passed unnoticed. So this was a new
experience for us. We never got to actually see the precious form of our
other children as we did with Josiah.
But once you see the miracle of that tiny human form, to see first
hand the miracle handiwork of God, you will never have another thought as to
whether that child was human. The Bible says in Psalm 139 that even
BEFORE we were knit together in our mother's womb, that God had all of
our days and hours ordained that we should live...
even before ONE of them came to be! So God knew the perfectly
ordained
days and hours He had alloted for Jeremiah and Josiah...
they had an eternal call on their lives, not an earthly one.
Though we do not have to like it, or even understand it,
we know that God is perfect in His soverignty and we simply rest in
Him.
Blessings in Messiah Jesus!
Brad & Dawn
Irons
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