Our Stories by: Abi Dougherty

   Baby Joeli Grace was born January 30th, 2008 at 11:30 am. She was beautiful, just like her older sister Seana Jane! She is named after both of her Grandma’s middle names Jo and Elizabeth and Grace is after our maternal Grandma’s. She weighed a mere 4.9oz and was 8 inches long. We do not know a reason, at this point, but her heart stopped beating. Thank you to all who prayed for a quick delivery and no further complications. Those prayers are so precious to us and will continue to be for quite  awhile.
   Right now we are trusting God and His faithful plan! We know full well that our little angel girl, Joeli Grace is in heaven with Him in NO PAIN and NO SORROW! She is happy and healthy and I'm sure is keeping God busy with her antics, as her older sis does so well to us...heehee! I like to think of Joeli as our precious reminder of how amazing our Jesus really is, how faithful His plans are and that NOTHING is promised to us and nothing is deserved or owed to us. She, as her daddy says, "taught us of how precious life really is."
   I wish you all could have seen her precious little hands and her long little feet. How formed they were, intricate, and lovely. What a perfect visible image of God's intricate little handy-work and details. How wonderful He is! We are praising Him for her life, short as it was, and we are thanking Him for her future and our future too, with Him, in NO MORE PAIN, and NO MORE SORROW, where the sting of death is NO MORE!
   It is only by His grace that our hearts will mend. We are all sinners, saved by God's infinite grace. Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." It is only by accepting the blood of Jesus as our atonement and asking Him to come into our heart and save us from our sin. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." 1st John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, I invite you to seek Him out, because He is an amazing and intricate God, full of grace, mercy, peace, joy and HOPE FOR A FUTURE!
   We love you all and appreciate all your support. May God use little Joeli Grace's life and death to teach us all the important lesson of how fragile and precious life is and not to waste it in worldly ambitions and selfish gain.

In Christ,
Sean, Abi and Seana Jane
For Joeli Grace Dougherty

2nd Corinthians 12:9-10 "But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Paul: discussing his trials and the pain that satan had been inflicting upon him and he had asked God three times to take it from him, but the answer the Lord says is so beautiful.