Cookies For Africa

I was standing hunched over my laptop when I received this request, too rushed to sit down for a quick Inbox check – skim, delete, skim, set aside to read more carefully, skim, quick response… Then I read the email containing this cookie request and stopped cold. Here is what it said:

“…I’m looking to place another order – a very special order. We have heart parents who sadly lost their little girl at 4 months of age and they are celebrating what would be her 1st birthday on Saturday, May 22nd.”

I panicked a little bit. In truth, every time I hear about the death of a child, I panic a little bit, because I know how easily it could be any child, Jack or Marcus in particular. I also panicked a bit because I didn’t think I could do justice to this event, and even if I could, would it be awkward? Would a gift of flowers and butterflies on such an sad occasion offend the grieving parents?

I was thinking about Carsyn’s parents and about this order while on a run one morning. From somewhere within my memory came the verse Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints”. The grief of a parent testifies to the pricelessness of a child. Carsyn was everything to her parents that my children are to me. And she is so special to God that even her death was precious in His sight. How foolish of me to imagine that a gift honoring her would offend her parents. Of course not! It makes perfect sense to, in the donor’s words, “celebrate” Carsyn and the very short months she had with her parents.

The donor shared more about Carsyn and I’d like to honor her by sharing it with you:

Carsyn Presley Buchmann was born on May 22nd, 2009 with a congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrom. Carsyn was born with 1/2 of a heart. After Two open heart surgeries, Carsyn was listed for a heart transplant which she received on July 27th, 2009. After fighting for nearly four months, She passed away from complications of a stroke. Carsyn spent her entire life in the Cardiac ICU at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

Please pray with me for comfort for Carsyn’s parents and for the donor too, who herself lost a child to congenital heart disease. Carsyn’s parents have set up a foundation named “The Wings of Angels”, which you can read about or donate to here.

Thanks, Stephanie, for the lesson you taught me, that it is always comforting for a parent to honor their child. And thank you for the donation, which purchased two nets that may save other children from malaria, and save their parents from the grief that Carsyn’s parents suffer.