The Letter from a Baby that Went to Heaven

This year we complete 8 years since our younger daughter, Júlia, went to Heaven. She had been a blessing to our family during the 5 months she spent with us. Today she is our private saint and intercedes for us with Jesus. If you want to know her story, you can check it here, I share with you a letter that I wrote a few days after she passed, thanking everybody at the Neonatal ICU at the Maternidade de Campinas (hospital) who helped me to take care of her during that time.

Dear family from the Neonatal ICU,

I've inspired my mother to write this letter for you, to thank. I'd like to thank you all and each one of you for everything you've done for me in these five months we've spent together. For the care you had when you touched me, for the “candies” during the painful exams – so I wouldn´t suffer too much, for the caress in my skin when you were giving me milk, for the many baths to freshen me up and to low that fever that didn't want to go away, for the lost sleep trying to figure out what was happening to me…

Thank you for the cradle that made me more comfortable, for dressing me up, for the “huts” so the light wouldn't bother me much, for the soup and for the juice, ultimately for making me feel at home. You were truly a family to me, after all I spent much more time with you than with my parents and siblings.

I know that soon after I was born, many believed I wouldn´t live much and because of that they didn´t want to be attached. But little by little I won everybody with my penetrating and live look. I didn´t give up fighting for my life, for a little more oxygen, for a little more time.

Now I'm very well. Fully happy, with our Heavenly Father and in the lap of our Blessed Mother, knowing that I´ve fulfilled my mission there on Earth. I don't feel pain anymore, neither shortness of breath or tiredness. I'm here with another friend that spent some time with you also and came here a little before me, and they also thank you: Caio (Pedro´s brother), Mariana, Mateus, Lara (Luana´s sister) and the other Júlia. I know that there are others, but I haven't met them yet, after all I got here just some days ago…

My mission was, and still is, to show everybody that LIFE IS WORTHED. Life is the biggest gift we got from our Heavenly Father and we should care for it with a lot of tenderness, not attaching too much with the material goods and not losing our health with useless preoccupations. What really matters in our life is LOVE. How much we loved and how much we have been loved. To love and be loved we don´t need a perfect body (this I'm sure) or even health. All we need is the will to love and willingness to sacrifice. The sacrifice and the pain purifies and enhance the love and the reason why, you will only fully understand when you get here with me.

I never saw the sun light, never ate chocolate, never played at the sea, in other words, I didn´t have any of the pleasures of the world. But I´ve lived my life fully, because I was loved very much and I also loved too much. I loved so much that when I realized that my stay there at the hospital was getting complicated, because I wasn't a newborn anymore and I needed to give my space to another baby and that my mother couldn't handle it anymore, she was very tired of visiting me every day, I asked our Blessed Mother to come and get me, because the time had come.

I know that the separation is hard and it hurts a lot, but I'll always be with you, helping in everything you need. As Jesus said, the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the children, so from here I can do a lot. When things get hard over there, remember me, and you can ask anything that I will help. Love a lot and love everyone that I assure that the reward will be huge: a place here in Heaven.

Well, I say good bye now thanking you one more time for everything and I hope to see you all one day...

Lots of love,

JUJU