Warning: Sad (death mentioned)

A long-time buddy from the boards is facing the hardest thing in the world. Saying goodbye to her baby. Katie lost Emma at 21+ weeks, then kept her other two triplets, Becca and Louie, in for another two weeks to make it to 23 weeks, at which point they will do NICU care (as opposed to hospice care, which is what they do earlier). Becca went through a lot, but she made it. She is home, still on 02, but expected to be fine. Louie was not so lucky. He has been through everything--surgeries for ROP and NEC, countless intubations and transfusions, and a week ago they told Katie that his heart was enlarged and he would not survive the cardiac arrests that were imminent. They put a DNR on him and they are planning to remove life support so he can say goodbye without tubes and monitors, next week. Katie is such a wonderful person, and she and her family have been through hell with all this. More than most of us can even imagine.

I'm not blogging about this just to talk though. I want to ask anyone who reads this who wants to, to join in a "prayer meeting" our playgroup is doing. You can light an online candle for Louie. I think seeing all the candles dedicated to her and her little boy will really mean a lot to Katie.

Here are the instructions from the playgroup:

If you would like to light a virtual candle for Louie, go to this link and follow the instructions –except - where it says to enter your initials, put in the name LOUIE – you can sign your name in the dedication –there are over a 1000 candles on this site so this way we can find which candles are our Louie candles. You also will get a mini-candle to keep on your desktop. The candles burn for two days and you can go back and light as many as you wish. http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/enter.cfm

Thanks.