Hi, my name is Karin. I am 35 years old and have been married for 12 years. We have a beautiful boy named Kaleb who is 2 1/2.

Kaleb has a sister in Heaven. Kathleen was born March 27 2008 at 19 weeks. We got to hold her for 1 1/2 hour before her little heart gave up. She was a beautiful perfect little girl. We have no answers for sure (possibly blood clotting or IC) why she was born early but I did experience bleedings from week 12 and onwards. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong while I was pregnant and assured me all would be fine, but it wasn't. Suddenly my waters broke and two hours later Kathleen entered the world, much too early to be saved.

April 3^rd we had a funeral for our little girl. It was a hard day but also beautiful. We sang, we lit candles and we released butterflies. We wrote a letter to her that I would like to share here:

Dear Kathleen
We miss you so much and although we know you are in a better place we wish you were still here with us, that we had gotten to know you and you had gotten to know your parents and your big brother. We can't help but imagine what you would have looked like, what you would have been like, how your life would have unfolded and how you would have impacted the world. You were our little dream girl. We were so looking forward to having you in our family. Your grandma was coming to see you and we were going to take you overseas to see the rest of your family. We were looking forward to taking you and your big brother to the beach this summer. The time we held you in our arms was very precious and you were so beautiful. We know that someday we will see you in heaven but until then you will be greatly missed and you will always have a special place in our heart.
We love you very, very much.
Mom & Dad

Loosing Kathleen has been and still is an extremely difficult experience. Not a day goes by without me thinking of her and imagining what things could have been like. She should have been born August 20 2008 but instead I am left with a broken heart. Yet, I know God heals the brokenhearted and that with His strength I will move forward slowly.

Getting pregnant with Kathleen took us 15 months. We desperately want more children but have to trust in God's timing although we hope and pray we won't have to wait long. I do believe God has good plans for us and we need to wait for Him and trust in Him.

"Still I am confident of this: I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Take heart and be strong and wait for the Lord" Psalm 27:13-14