Just wanted to touch base and thank you for your prayers. We are still operating under a veil of grief, not really knowing how to even begin to process what is happening. We spent the day crying, praying, and just being with Nicol and Greg. There are absolutely no words to express what they are feeling. Everyone is here now, and I will continue to keep you updated as we have more specifics. The details at this point seem to indicate SIDS, but we do not know for sure.
A few things that I would ask for you to specifically pray for would be:
1. Having to deal with the planning for Luke’s service, burial, etc. I remember the strange feeling of knowing that I had to make choices and it felt like it was the farthest thing from what I felt capable of at that moment.
2. Pray that neither Greg nor Nicol will blame themselves for Luke’s death. As parents, we can’t help but let ourselves drift into the dangerous land of “what if….?” Where there is a sovereign God, there are no “what if’s”. Lord, remind them of this over and over as they rest tonight…
3. Pray for Summer. She is young, and I don’t think she really understands what is happening, although she is asking where baby Lukie is.
4. Please pray for us as we try to minister to them. The wound is fresh for us, and we long to minister to them the way we have felt ministered to recently. Pray for the right words and God’s timing as we try to help them in their planning, their processing, and their grieving.
5. Please pray for Greg and Nicol’s marriage. I am remembering the days around Audrey, and the way the hurt transforms to anger, and the way that the anger lands on whoever is closest. They spent the day peacefully together, but I want to pray that no divisions will rise up between them, and that they will feel fully united in their sorrow.
6. Pray for God to allow their grief to be distributed….as you read these words, you may feel called to volunteer yourself through prayer to be a “carrier” of their grief. I asked the Lord many times since we found out about Luke if He would allow me to carry a portion. I believe He as answered my prayer and I am convinced he will answer yours as well.
7.Pray for patches of joy in a bleak, seemingly hopeless fog.
8.Pray that God would bless Greg and Nicol with erasing the memories from last night that they cannot stand to replay over and over in their minds. Pray that God will erase the moments, smells, sounds of those terrifying moments, and that in their place will be a feeling of peace….peace that passes all understading.
9. Pray for those who do not know our great God…that the testimony and the hearts of Greg and Nicol would minister to them in such a difficult time. Lord, draw them to Yourself.
10. Pray. Pray. Pray.
So many of you have walked with us, and I know you will desire to do the same with them. You may want to send scriptures, prayers, thoughts, and support directly to them, so I have set up a new gmail account for you to send personal notes to Greg, Nicol, and Summer.
the email address is: sponbergfamily@gmail.com
Please feel free to love on them there…I don’t know when they will have the opportunity to read them, but I do know how much it will mean when they do.
Thank you for loving my family through this time.
I hope to have another update tomorrow with more details. In the meantime, we find great peace in this, “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express…” Romans 8:26
Our hearts are broken, our bodies depleted, and yet our hope is in our Stongtower…we will run to you, Jesus.
Angie
