These past several days have been a season of quiet for me and the McCullough home in general.

For the second time this calendar year the tiniest and newest member of our family, a child already living, but not yet born, did not survive the birth process.

Things happen to individuals when they grieve.

For my Lovely Bride it seemed to be a time of added emotion as word came to us that the parent of childhood friends was buried back home, and added to that the fact that the Lovely Bride's mom--who left us in 2005--was such good friends with the mother who had just passed.. Add these together and you can see the level of emotion, reflection, and contemplation that we experienced.

When the worries that we might be losing the pregnancy came on Saturday I felt as helpless as any human can. To see one you love, to hear the fear that taints the attempted bravery with which she speaks, and to know your absolute inability to do anything about it confounds and frustrates the soul.

Thus the reason I've not written on this blog really since last Friday. I also canceled my column on Sunday, stayed home from church, opted out of FoxNews and other book promotion and media on Monday/Tuesday, and even now can barely bring myself to get the next word typed.

It had only been a few days before that we had let ourselves believe that this pregnancy was different than the one in April which ended earlier and in largely the same fashion.

Yet despite that loss, there is something about these days that I would not take back. In five days of mostly quiet there has been the discussion of things deep in our hearts. There has been the reminder that we are not now, and have not been alone in this process. There has been the generous offers of support from friends--some we've known, and some brand new--that spoke to the real pieces of who we are as people.

There is an appreciation for a mother of three from our church who would drop her plans on a busy Saturday night just to come listen for hours. There were the prayers, and love of good friends, some of whom we would just naturally believe would be too busy, too important, to come out of their way to be for us whatever we asked. But they came...

There is an education in learning how much more goes into the formation of that child that is living, just not yet born. And there is an awareness in even greater detail that this tiny life, is not merely a mass of cells, but someONE living, growing, and maturing.

Maybe its the grappling with the fundamental reality of something I've believed for so long--but now seeing its truth in more potent full-color strength that gives me the quiet assurance that there is no need to apologize for my belief about the sacred aspect of such life.

And while a season of silence was good for myself and my Lovely Bride, perhaps the time is now to become even more precise in the battle for the lives of those who have no defense.

And isn't it interesting that it IS those who have no defense that are most under attack in a nation where freedom and justice are supposedly the rule of the day.

There is much to get into about bailouts, cabinet appointments, President-elect Obama's fake office, the feces-throwing homosexuals in California--but as far as I'm concerned those could all be put on hold for a few days, because of what the Creator was doing in our lives was again demonstrating the proof of his claim, power, and dominion.

Yesterday, the Lovely Bride set the table for Thursday's meal of Thanksgiving that we will celebrate. Like her mother who passed in 2005 she has carried the tradition of autumn leaves on the places settings and name cards for each person who will be there, four of whom have yet to arrive. On that day we will, also in keeping with tradition, ask each person partaking in that meal to name one thing that they have to be thankful for.

In pondering all of this while preparing for our guests the Lovely Bride said to me out of the blue and out of the quiet, "I have so much to be thankful for..." At which point she named several things.

And I was reminded of one other aspect of life.

That those who know and seek God, those that "wait" on Him--if you will, He has promised to those, that He will renew their strength.

And it appears that for us, after these past several quiet days, He has begun to do just that.

So here's to a more deeply profound Thanksgiving to each of you, regardless of your circumstance, because at the end of the day--as God's creation, you have more to be thankful about than you likely realize in this moment. But if that's the case, take some time to be quiet, take a season to be still, and see for yourself if it does not indeed become a season of goodness!