Dear Zoe,
You left us when I was three. I know it wasn't your fault; Daddy called you home, Little Sis. But it still hurt. I remember singing to you. Loving you. Dreaming about the days we would spend together. But then those dreams turned to nightmares when I learned that you had left this place. Sorrow, fear, and anger in both sleeping and waking hours. Unending. Unrelenting. At such a young, tender age, I didn't know how to face such rampant emotions. I knew how to be mad at my brother for stealing a toy, or upset with the cloudy weather on my birthday. But not this. This sheer pain, loneliness, and frustration. I didn't know how to react. I didn't even know where to aim all this blame. All I knew was that you were gone, and I couldn't do anything to change that. Your name, dear Zoe, means life. But you never had a chance. You were never able to say your first words, or to walk. You never got to attend your first sleepover, or feel the joy and anticipation of awaiting Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. You didn't get to go to your first day of school, to your Junior Prom, or to graduate. To get married and have children of your own. You didn't get the chance to grow old, and it isn't fair. They say life isn't fair, but I have come to realize that death is even less discriminate. I miss you. I know, it seems crazy. How can I miss someone that I've never met in my waking hours? Never looked into your eyes, never heard your voice? But I miss you for what we could've done. Could've been. I don't know exactly what you would have become, but I know who you would have been. I know who you are. You are my baby sister, and a child of the King. You would have changed the world. Some say it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. Now, I look upon Zoe's Heart, a granite form standing strong and bronze in the grassy field, shimmering in the fading sunlight. Seemingly a reminder of hopes vanished, loves lost, and dreams turned nightmares, but also of the gift of life and the grace of the Father.

For Zoe Grace
"Life by the grace of God"