Aaron Proffitt

As most of you know, Ashlee and I took a trip up to Virginia this past week. We had an incredible time seeing both sides of our families and hanging out with our church family in Harrisonburg. Last Thursday would have been Aaden’s first birthday. He was born a year ago, October 8th 2008, a perfect baby weighing in at 8 lbs 5 oz. What a blessing from God that it was to have a second son born into our family. Our hearts were filled with overwhelming joy as we welcomed our new addition. When he passed just 5 and a half weeks into his short life, our joy quickly turned into sorrow. It has been a rough year for us since November 15th. But one thing we have learned this past year. We have the greatest family, friends, and church family that anyone could ever ask for.

As the months went by, we thought surely people would forget about our tragic loss and our little sweet boy. But that was not the case. People have not ceased asking how we are doing and they haven’t ceased telling us how awesome our little man was. Ashlee even has two very close friends who send her a little gift on the 15th of every month.

I knew that this fall would be tough but it kind of struck early. Ashlee started feeling that intense pain of losing Aaden again in late August/early September, so I knew I needed to get her up to Virginia. That’s when I decided we were going to take a road trip. The 28 hours of pain in the car driving to Virginia and back was overshadowed by the overwhelming love, support, and encouragement that we received from our family and friends in H’burg, as well as our church family here in Tampa, who loved us from a distance with calls and text messages and when we returned home with flowers and gifts. We were able to hit up the Aletheia H’burg Wednesday night service and at one point at the end of the night I looked over to see about 20 women surrounding Ashlee, laughing with her, loving on her, and showering her with gifts (you can see the picture of our trunk below…let’s just say that we came home with a lot more stuff than when we left).

Our family and friends embraced us and loved us knowing that we were going through another difficult season and that the sorrow would last pretty much through the rest of the year, as we have to relive the next few months again without our son being in our life. We got to see Christ’s love modeled again and again and again this past week. It was an incredible sight! And for it all, we must say thanks. Thanks to all those who have rejoiced with us, weeped with us, loved us, encouraged us, cared for us, and exemplified Christ to us over the past year. We are truly grateful for each and everyone of you and I wish that I could name all of you but there are dozens and dozens so I’ll save you the time. Our church families in H’burg and now in Tampa are incredible representatives of Christ and we are so blessed to know you, to have served with you in the past, to serve with you now, and to hopefully serve with all of you in the future.

Thanks again. The Proffitt family loves you all very deeply. We had a great visit to Virginia, celebrating the birth of our second son, visiting his grave sight, spending time with family and friends, and feeling the love of all those who are in our lives. Here are some pics for you…