Joshua Dale

It has been almost two weeks since Joshua died. I never thought the pain of losing a child I had not yet met would be so great. As I reflect on how his death has impacted my life I still don’t fully understand, but I know I will be different for the rest of my life. I know my relationship with Angie has been affected and my relationship with Jesus is different. I don’t know if I have ever wrestled with God in the way I have in the last few days. I still don’t understand, I am still upset, and I am still broken. In the midst of my heartache I still know that Jesus loves me…A verse that Angie shared with me is one I hold onto in my time of great pain. “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) I never thought I could love someone as much as I do even though I never me Joshua.

When Angie and I found out when out baby boy had died it crushed us. One thing we knew was that he had already impacted our lives, and we wanted him to have an impact on others. We never met him, but we wanted his life to have meaning and that is how we went about giving him a name. For Angie and I this was the hardest thing we have ever had to go through in our lives. We felt that we were in a valley, and “Dale” means in the valley. But we still knew that God was our salvation and our hope, so we gave him the name “Joshua,” which means the Lord is out salvation. So even in the valley the Lord is still our salvation.

As Angie and I have had to say good-bye to our son we have been so blessed by the community of believers and we don’t know how others go through pain and suffering without hope in Jesus and a community. We have seen the church be the church and we feel loved and cared for and know that God still loves us.


This experience sucks, is the hard, we don’t get it, we are frustrated, we are in tears, and we know that people are sorry for us. But the greatest gift that was given to me was a man in our church how told me “he loved me.” I praise God for his words, and in the midst of pain I was loved by God and by others. I praise God for out community who has come around Angie and I and have helped us walk through this valley.