Our Story of Hope- The Marquardt Family (Emmy)

Todd and I have been married for almost 13 years and we have 2 kids, Micah who is now 6 and Emerysn, who is 2 years younger than him. Life was normal. Todd and I were pursuing our careers, the kids were in school, we participated in our church, we spent time traveling and spending time with friends, just normal stuff. 

On Thursday morning, May 19^th our lives changed forever. Every morning we would get the kids up by 7 am to get them ready for school and out the door. I finished making the kids lunches and glanced at the clock on the oven at it said 7:00 am. In a hurry, because I was planning to spend the day traveling for work, I rushed down the hall to get Emmy up for school. Micah was already up eating his breakfast and watching his morning cartoons. I remember on my way down the hall thinking about what I was planning to dress Emmy in for Red, White, and Blue day at school. I thought for sure her blue and white striped shorts and a red shirt.

I always tried to be a kind mom when I woke my babies up in the morning. I didn’t ever want to flip the lights on right away, so I walked into her room, turned off the sound machine, and walked across the room to open her curtains and shades. She didn’t always move when her sound machine turned off, but once I would pull the shades, she would start wrestling around. I pulled the shades, and she didn’t move and at that second I knew something was wrong. 

I approached her crib to find her lifeless. She had snuck off to heaven in the middle of the night. I screamed for Todd. He called 911 and we began performing CPR praying for a miracle. I was hoping, but my medical mind knew she was home with Jesus. It took EMS 8 minutes to get to us. Micah, we found out later, was a brave little boy that unlocked the doors and showed them where to go. Within 30 seconds of them arriving, they said there was nothing they could do. My entire world stopped. My baby was gone.

Because of her age, our house quickly became a crime scene as the police and investigators did their job. It was about 4.5 hours later that they finished their job and when Emmy left our house for the final time. We are thankful for the kindness of the mortuary workers that gave us extra time with her to say our goodbyes. And then she left, forever.

I remember that afternoon looking at Todd in complete disbelief of what happened. My brain could not even begin to process what just happened, but we knew one thing – we would only survive this with Christ. I look back and know that God gave us 5 minutes of clarity to decide that we would be all in. We would trust Him because He was our only hope. 

6 days later we buried our precious little girl after the most beautiful celebration of life. God was truly glorified and she was honored. Her funeral was packed, and I was completely shocked for her being only 3 years and 9 days. But she changed the world and I’m grateful to be her mommy.

We still  have our questions of why? Why her? Why us? The waves of grief, sorrow, and despair still rise, but our Anchor holds.  God reminds me that He is with us, He is not surprised by this, and He will not waste a second of our misery.  I have seen God carry us in ways  and I have gotten to know Him in ways I never imagined. He truly is close to the brokenhearted.   We still miss Emmy more than life itself, but we have so much hope.  We are confident that she is not lost or gone, rather she has just beat us to Heaven and one day soon, we will spend forever with Emmy and our good God that has been so gracious to us. Until that great day, I pray that God would use our story to encourage others and to bring so much glory to Him.