We Lost Our Farm Cat to a Predator

You know what, sometimes being a mom is hard...really hard.

Like the morning when you wake up together after grandma died and you have to tell him the news. Or when you have to answer all the questions about Heaven, God, and death when you're grieving yourself. You have to be strong for your child when you're not feeling strong. It’s rough folks...real rough.

Sometimes I feel like I am not ready to handle the heartaches of life with my son. I want someone else to do it. You know who he wants when he is hurting though? That's right....he wants me. I get to be the person who he thinks has all the answers who has to tell him that I don’t have all the answers.

Yesterday was a hard day for us. I found our family cat, Molly, dead out in the field. To some, especially cat haters, this may seem silly to be so upset about a family pet but after losing grandma last year, everything kind of goes back to that.
 Molly and her kitten, Smokie
It’s that first time that a child realizes that death is real. They realize that people do go away and they don’t come back. When your cat dies you understand that Molly is gone. You're petting her one day and the next day you are digging a hole to bury her.

Holding a sobbing child and not being able to make it better is awful.
My son has hard questions for me and I don’t always have answers for him. Sometimes all I do is lay in his bed with him, let him cry, and then pray with him. He says it makes him feel better when I pray with him.

Losing someone you love is the end of innocence for a child. It’s when they realize that everything in their world may not always stay the same. This is why our faith is so important to us. I am not sure how parents who don’t believe Jesus Christ and life everlasting deal with this kind of stuff. What do you tell your child? Grandma’s dead and you’re never going to see her again?

My son asked me last night if I thought Molly was in Heaven. I told him I like to think that animals who mean something to us go to Heaven, but I am not sure. I don’t have a definite answer for that question. See what I mean about parenting being hard?

When he asks about grandma in Heaven, I can answer those questions. I can say that grandma was a believer in Jesus Christ and she is with Him now. Do we miss her?  Absolutely! Do we have assurance through our faith that we will see her again? Yes we do! This is the promise I cling to.

Yes, Molly was just a cat but the fact is, it still hurts. The older a person gets, the more they long for Heaven because life is so full of pain and hurt. The amount of tears that are shed are too much to deal with at times. When you have a God that promises you there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more cancer, and no more death, you hang on to that with all you have. You want the tears to be wiped away and your heart to not hurt.

Evan made a sign for Molly’s grave yesterday and covered it with a sheet protector. My boy is soft at heart, and although that may mean he gets hurt more in life, I wouldn’t want it any other way. If you have no pain it means you have experienced no loss, and we know that it's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

~Jenn

 



2 comments:

  1. This is a very heart warming, but sad post. I'm sorry you and your son are going through so much pain right now. Thank you for sharing your story. I struggle with the end of life and it's hard to imagine Heaven and wanting to go there, but it's because Earth is all I know. The Lord is teaching me about faith and trusting Him and your story is a stepping stone on that journey. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're welcome KudzuJungle. I am happy to open my heart and life up to people. I am glad that it helped you today. Have a wonderful day and thanks for commenting!

    ReplyDelete