A Heidi mercy

One day I hope to sit down and list all the mercies that our family has been given on this journey with our daughter. They’re why our little baby girl goes by Mercy. Her full name, however, is Heidi Mercy. She’s named after her aunt Heidi (pictured), Erica’s younger sister. If you weren’t fortunate enough to meet Heidi in this life, here is a link that gives a glimpse of who she was during the last part of her faithful, generous, grace-filled life.

This post is about one mercy in particular that we received, a deeply meaningful mercy that was no doubt heaven-sent. It was a direct answer to one of our prayer requests. With surgery scheduled for tomorrow, right now seems like a great time to celebrate answered prayer.

On Thursday, we found out that Mercy likely would need surgery to fix an issue with her small intestine, and that she’d need to be transferred from Evanston to a hospital that could support the surgery. Within two hours after we were told she’d need to be moved, there was a transport team strapping Mercy in and taking her away in an ambulance. Leaving the nurses we loved, doctors we trusted, and the familiarity of the Evanston ISCU was difficult. When we got to the Park Ridge NICU, we felt a bit overwhelmed with all the changes and with establishing new relationships.

On Friday, we were approached by several nurses, doctors, and hospital staff who were getting to know Mercy and us before we scheduled the surgery. Beth, one of the family life specialists, introduced herself and mentioned that Erica looked like someone she went to college with. She went to Indiana University, and the person whom she thought Erica looked like was Heidi.

Beth knew Heidi’s story. She understood the past five years of battling cancer, dialysis, hope, and last August, grief.

With Heidi, Erica stayed by her side in the hospital as often as she could, advocating for her, comforting her, learning medical terminology, and donating marrow and a kidney. She did everything within her power to help the one she loved. As Erica advocates for Mercy, it has felt very similar.

Since Beth knew Heidi, we could remember Heidi together and grieve again together. It was grounding to have that instant, deep connection, and helped make a jarring transition instantly more familiar.

My hope and prayer for Mercy (and all my kids) is that they’d live as faithfully as Heidi did. To me, the hymn, For All The Saints captures the grief, hope, holy calling, sorrow, strength, and peace that come when I think about her:

For All The Saints

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,

Who thee by faith, before the world confessed

Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed,

Alleluia! Allelu!

Thou was their rock, their fortress and their might,

Thou Lord their captain, in the well-fought fight,

And in the darkness drear, their one true Light,

Alleluia! Allelu!

O may thy soldiers, faithful true and bold,

Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,

And win with them the victor’s crown of gold,

Alleluia! Allelu!

The golden evening brightens in the west,

Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest,

Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed,

Alleluia! Allelu!

We love you, Heidi.