Celebrating Amalya

I want to share one last post about our precious Amalya Nathaniel. I’ve been waiting to show pictures of my little grandson because I wanted to let my daughter be the first to share pictures on her Facebook page, and I also wanted her to help me pick out a couple to share with you.

We were so blessed by the gift of Amalya. Before he was diagnosed, none of us had even heard of acrania or anencephaly. We have all learned so much during this time and it has exponentially increased our compassion towards other families who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or infants passing. As difficult as this time was, none of us have regretted a single moment of celebrating this treasured life that was given to our families.

Yesterday, we had the memorial service for Amalya so we could share his special life with the many family and friends who followed our daughter and son-in-law’s journey. I’m always amazed at how a situation like this can actually turn out to be an encouragement to others, but we saw it happen time and time again over the past six months, and we saw it again last night. If you are new to this blog, you can read the monthly letters our daughter and her husband wrote about their experience on my webpage that features my quilt, “Surrender”.

Our other daughter wrote a special song for him, which she and some friends recorded ahead of time and played at the memorial service. I wanted to share the lyrics with you.

LITTLE ONE (Amalya’s Song)
© 2012 Lydia Elkins

We rejoiced when we heard you were coming, Little One,
And we laughed as we each made the claim
That we’d hold you the most,
And we reveled in how great a blessing
God would make you to be.

Then we all settled into our waiting.
We knew the day when we’d finally meet you
Would surely arrive.
And we let minutes slip by into weeks…
But then came the pain.

For God knit you together in your mother’s womb,
But He didn’t knit you for this world.
So we knew when you joined us you wouldn’t stay long
Before God’s call brought you home.

We placed our grief and our hearts alongside you, Little One,
And we laid them together with you in our Father’s arms,
And we chose to embrace every moment He let you remain.

Then we set about bringing you with us
To experience each joy in life
We could think to share,
And we made each a small celebration
Of our time here with you.

For God knit you together in your mother’s womb,
But He didn’t knit you for this world,
So we knew when you joined us you wouldn’t stay long
Before God’s call brought you home.

And when God knit you together in your mother’s womb,
Not a stitch of His work went awry,
But He followed a plan that was higher than ours,
So we’ll love you all the way home.

We rejoice that our God sent you to us, Little One,
And we marvel at all that He’s doing
Through your brief dash of life,
And we revel in how great a blessing
God has made you to be.

( http://www.a-wayfarer.com/LittleOne.wma )

(Many thanks to those who helped make the recording of this song possible: To Susan Strong for lending her lovely voice to the vocals, to Laura Leighninger for turning a bare melody line into a beautiful keyboard arrangement, and to Mark Ash for his time and work on the technical aspect of recording and sound editing. Song and violin by Lydia Elkins.)