Julia was finishing up law school and Joe had just started his new job at the local hospital as a doctor. They had dated since their freshman year of college and gotten married just about two years ago. To everyone else on the outside they were “the couple that had it all” and that “had everything going for them.” They had their careers set. Living in a small, white house with a little picket fence, and with a bright and successful future ahead of them, the last thing they desperately wanted was to have a child they could call their own. They had wanted to start their own family since they had first gotten married but had trouble doing so.

At the end of May, on a warm and sunny day, Julia had come home from the doctors with the news they had been waiting for. She was pregnant. The entire car ride home from the doctor’s office, all she could think of was how happy and excited she was and could not wait to tell Joe.

For the next few months, the baby consumed their world and constantly wore huge smiles on their faces. From telling each family member to shopping for clothes and a crib, planning the shower, to decorating the room, it consumed their thoughts.

In October, they went together to the doctors and found out that the precious baby they couldn’t wait for would be a little boy. They couldn’t be happier. Together, they would spend time each day going through names that they thought would be perfect for him. After careful thinking, they decided Patrick would be a perfect fit. They thought about how he would look like, if he would have his father’s hair or his mother’s eyes. They thought about how they would hold him tight and keep him safe trying to protect him from everything they possibly could, imagining his little fingers wrapping around their thumbs. He would be their world and their future and they would put everything in him.

In late December, just a few days before Christmas, they were out shopping together buying last minute gifts when Julia began to have unusual stomach pains. Concerned, they rushed to the hospital. She went through a number of tests and waited for the results. Minutes went by like hours and hours seemed like days to them.

Finally, the doctor came, slowly opening the door and looked at them with a wounded expression on his face. Their hearts sunk into their chests and stomachs turned, bracing themselves for what was coming.

“I’m so sorry, you’ve had a miscarriage.”

Those seven words hit them like a ton of bricks. Their world instantly began to seem like it was falling apart and were burdened with grief. It was the worst possible heartbreak that they could ever imagine.

The tiny miracle that they were waiting for, for so long was taken from them all too soon. Their “small bump” was ripped from life.

They weren’t sure why it happened and were filled with so many questions that no one had the answers too. Right when everything began to seem like it was coming together, it all fell apart.