Sunday, March 1, 2009

His Daddy's Voice

Well, My Friends! I began a blog about three days ago about ALL the wonderful things that are happening on the music front these days . . . that blog remains partly written for another day. . . perhaps tomorrow or the next day. There are SO many wonderful new developments on the music front that I can’t wait to tell you about!

Tonight,though, I need to share with you something that just happened. We have had a wonderful weekend. Yesterday we spent all day out at the farm (Practice’s house.) His son turned seven and we had a birthday party and we got to meet the ENTIRE family. It was fun and wonderful and very enjoyable.

Today Abbi had a swim meet and Practice and his kids came. Again, we had a wonderful time and it is fun to see these kids bonding. It is also wonderful to continue to grow in friendship with Practice. He is a wonderful man. Each day that we spend together and each of the ‘everyday life’ situations that we face just continue to confirm to us that we are very well matched.

Tonight, though, my kids and I needed to discuss something that had happened earlier in the day. There was a little miscommunication between Micah and Practice and we needed to discuss the matter. As Abbi, Noah, Micah and I sat talking, I brought up Practice’s voice. It is deep and strong and to be very honest, I prayed for a man with a nice voice (it was on the ‘list’) and I got it! I love his voice! But it is different than Chad’s voice, and therefore is different than we are used to.

As we were talking I said, “Jim’s voice is different than Daddy’s voice, isn’t it?” To which my dear, sweet, eight-year-old Micah said, “I don’t remember Daddy’s voice.”

“What? You don’t remember Daddy’s voice?” Oh my! Stunned! Oh, my baby! I think somewhere deep inside of me I knew this day would come . . . I have thought from time to time that I should get out our family videos and we should watch them . . . but, honestly, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I knew that, of all three of my kids, Micah would be the one that we would have to work the hardest with to keep his Daddy’s memory alive. He was only six when Chad died. I have felt that I have a responsibility to Micah to keep Chad’s memory alive for him - to really work at it – and while we talk about Chad ALL the time - clearly that is not enough. This poor baby doesn’t remember his daddy’s voice. Oh, Jesus, please help us!

And so, right there, we all began crying. I grabbed Micah and pulled him into me. I was just weeping and telling him how sorry I was. I grabbed my cell phone and told Abbi not to answer her's and I called it and put it up to Micah’s ear . . . so he could hear the message that answers Abbi’s phone (which used to be Chad’s number) and for the first time in almost 17 months Micah heard his daddy’s voice as Chad’s message said, “This is Chad Schieber from Lifeshield Child Safety Products. Sorry I can’t take your call right now but if you’ll leave your name, number, and a brief message I’ll get back with you just as soon as I can. Thank you.” I played it over and over for him as we sat there crying together.

How in the world could I have missed this? How could I not have thought about this? How many times have we all been taken aback when we've called Abbi only to hear Chad’s voice on the other end? How many times has my dear sister-in-law Missy told me that she had once again called Abbi and gotten Chad’s message and wound up bawling? How could I not have thought about this precious baby who has not heard his Daddy’s voice in SEVENTEEN months!

Oh, my God! Please be with little Micah. Lord, please help this baby to remember his daddy. Please cement every memory of Chad that lives within this little boy! Keep them clear and vivid, Lord. Please work a miracle within Micah’s little memory.

Rest assured that in the next couple weeks I WILL be figuring out how to play all those old family videos. I promised that little boy that I will figure out how to make all those little black 8mm tapes work on our TV and that we will watch lots of videos of his Daddy!

7 comments:

Jen said...

I'm so sorry that you and your sweet childdren have to go through this horrible thing. Please know that I'm praying for you and for the kids.

If you need anything, you know where to get me.

I love you!

Kim said...

Sarah
I am so glad you have tapes and videos for your kids to watch, I was older when my dad died and it would be so wonderful to have a video to watch again. They will treasure them always, I will be praying Kim

Anonymous said...

I found a great way to get home videos to dvd. Go to imemories.com.

Jennie said...

Praying for you, Micah and your families!

He will give you what you all need...trust in that.

Sue W said...

Sarah, take your films to Meier Camera downtown. I would suggest you take them one by one so no need to worry that they could all be lost. They can transfer them to DVD for you. I did this will all of our old, old movie films from the 60's and they came out great.

Sue W

Jennifer said...

Bless his sweet heart! I will be praying for you!


Jennifer

Anonymous said...

Sarah,

This left me in tears, bless that little guy and all of you.