I have had so many thoughts and emotions swirling around the last couple of weeks that I’ve lost track of the time! Oh, well – the “spring forward” on Sunday will mess it up again, anyway.
This might be a hard post for me. We’ll see once I get into it.
I have been thinking a lot about how the losses of Felix and Gabriel have affected my first 3 little loves. Not only their new-found expertise on funerals or how they are coping but how it has affected my relationships with them.
Let me just throw it right out there and lay open this wound. Sometimes I wonder if they feel like they aren’t good enough. Or more accurately; I wonder if I make them feel like they aren’t good enough. Let me explain. When we were having trouble getting pregnant (I know – us? The people who have babies 15-18 months apart? Yes, we had trouble getting started.), during one of my less-attractive whining sessions, Brian asked me if he wasn’t enough for me. I was so mad at him at the time but a few days later I really thought about it. Would he be enough for me if God never chose to bless us with children? Of course he would! But all my grief and wishing and wanting had made him feel like he wasn’t enough for me – even though that thought had never crossed my mind.
So, what I’m wondering is, when the kids hear me say I wish Felix and Gabriel were here do they feel like I’ve forgotten them? Like it isn’t enough to have them here? Of course I will always long for my sons who went home before I thought they should but that does not mean I would trade them for the ones who are here! That sounds awful but NONE of them are replaceable and that’s that. But how do I make sure Chloe and Dylan and Ezra know that in their heart of hearts? And how do I make sure that I don’t get so wrapped up in my wishing for a complete family on Earth that I end up alienating the little loves of my life who are here with me?
I know this may sound absolutely crazy but grief is a crazy thing and it does crazy things to your head. You know I get a little more open the later in the day it is when I write my posts. I really need to try to stick to my blogging curfew.
All that having been said I really do try to focus on here and now. I am not guaranteed for life to be the same an hour from now let alone tomorrow. I want to cherish every moment I have with them. I want to remember every word they say. I want to read too many bedtime stories. Heck, sometimes I even wish we could all sleep in the same room. All the while trying to balance out the fear of losing someone else. It’s quite a feat.
Anyway, I just felt like it was time to open another window into this grief-beast. It’s a (pardon me, Momma) bitch, plain and simple. Throw in some PMS-ing, still-adjusting-from-pregnancy hormones and you’re really talkin’ crazy! Thanks for listening.
Wow…to quote a dear friend, “This post was like reading my mind.” I have thought and felt these same things with my kids. I wonder if they will grow up with the feeling that they aren’t enough, that they’re just “replacements” for the child I lost, even though they don’t even understand yet that they lost a sibling. I certainly don’t feel that way about them at all, but I worry that they will somehow pick up on my longing for a complete family here on earth, and that they’ll somehow feel like they’re responsible for that. Wish I had some great wisdom for you, but all I can say is that you’re certainly not alone. And you’re right about the challenge of balancing the love with the fear. It’s quite a feat.
It’s not crazy. At all. I wonder if, as they watch us mourn for their older brothers and sisters, if Bobby and Maya will feel that way, or worse, that they were an “after thought” of some sort. I thank God every single day for all my children and, if my grief is the path I had/have to walk, for my full family, then I accept that, even in the pain. But it does make me think about the things you’ve wrote… A lot…