08/26/2026
When a couple is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to become parents, great excitement often occurs as the second line on a pregnancy test appears. Hearing the sweetest heartbeat just a few weeks later followed by ultrasounds and 4-D images leads to pure elation….anticipation for the blessing that is to come. Love is born LONG before the baby’s arrival.
For many, the baby arrives safely & lives a long, happy life. For others, what should be one of the happiest days of parents’ lives turns into a day of utter heartbreak and devastation. The latter holds true for my sweet friends,
Grateful Trish-Ann & D’wayne. Rather than me introducing you to their precious daughter, Joislen, I would invite you to read Trish’s beautiful words. As you do, please take the time to think of Joislen and lift her family up in prayer. They truly are a remarkable family, and Trish carries herself with a level of grace and truth that is unmatched by anyone I know.
Let’s all honor baby Joislen together.💛
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Hi— I’m Trish. I’ve got a lot of kids, but my favorite, I mean the first I carried 🤪🙊lives with my Savior. She would’ve been 11 today if she was for earth. Here’s a piece I wrote to commemorate our connection. Jesus is my survival guide, lest I would’ve chosen su***de.
To Joislen Grace 💛 🦋
“Today I was driving and a yellow butterfly smashed into my window. I did see it coming, but too late to avoid it. It fumbled over the hood of my car and I saw it slam on the concrete from my side mirror.
The end.
When i looked in my rear view mirror, it bounced off the floor and fluttered away into the gorgeous sunlight.
The beginning.
True story.
Remembering our late daughter on her 11th birth, day, date.
A Sunday celebration would have been nice.
Infinitely.
Better.
Off.
Dream her back? Always.
Wish her back? Never.
The earthen finality of death is brutal.
Then there’s the eternal reality of life evermore, where Grace and Sufficiency meet
Yet, grief isn’t futile
But the reward when deep love and deeper longing collide
The lucky contender 🎁
The tree where resilience, compassion, and endurance are…..begrudgingly, fortified
Didn’t sign up to be a wounded healer.
Who ever would?
Entrusted, selected, molded for.
Voluntold.
We don’t need to understand, agree with, accept, or even survive it.
Our response does change portion. Only our impact.
I long to see your name written on a school desk. Handle your kinky curls.
I bet I’d know how to braid hair by now.
Cheers to not being a pr***en. I don’t miss those days myself.
Cheers to finishing before you start.
An efficient route indeed.
Can we skip to the good part 🎵
CEO type.
Wanna be like you if I grow up.
Love our Joisey girl, for always.”
My sister wrote “Joislen never saw the light, but the light is all she knew, woven to perfection, and then she flew” 💛
Whether we miss what was, or long for what has never been, the unity is in knowing what it feels like to never have (another) picture of your family complete. Never experience the whole heart we were born with. Can’t control alt delete to reestablish naivety. Can’t enjoy the good without the awareness of the fleeting nature of being okay.
Not helpless. Not hopeless.
But forever branded.
If you made it this far, I hope the love you got to experience in times passed, the psychological safety, I hope that fuels you until you never have to be void of, again.
I pray newness and gentleness are experienced, and help the time to pass with gratitude until hope is no longer differed.
To our kiddos. 🥂
