Precious baby angel Jacob Torrez

Below is the obituary and touching letter written by baby Jacob's parents, Jamie and Luis Torrez. Although writing their son's obituary and touching tribute was agonizing, it was very important to them that those who read the obituary understood that Jacob's life began way before his birth. Jacob was a member of their family very early on, not just the few precious hours they had with him after his birth.

As you can imagine, this family is mourning the devastating loss of their sweet baby Jacob.  Please consider making a donatation so that this family can grieve without the worry & burden of the funeral costs, medical bills not covered and missed time from work.

All and any support is deeply appreciated and needed in this time of sorrow.

Jacob Luis Torrez
(2015 - 2015)
"Imagine a love so strong that saying hello and goodbye in the same day was worth the sorrow."  Author Unknown
 
Jacob Luis Torrez was born at 1:52pm Friday, January 9th 2015 at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI.  He was whisked away by a team of dedicated specialists who did everything they could to help Jake win his battle for life.  He came out ready to fight, he surprised the doctors with his strength.  They thought he had a chance!  He tried so hard, but the struggle became too much for his little heart after a couple of hours.  He spent the last two and a half hours of his life comfortable in his mother's arms, with his father, brothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles by his side. He knew nothing but love in his life.  God knew that his struggles here on earth would be too much to bear and took him to Heaven at 6:12pm Friday, January 9th 2015.  He is survived by his parents Luis and Jamie (Miller) Torrez, his brothers Devin, Brendan and Noah; Grandparents – Eulalio and Guadalupe Torrez and Dale and Wendi Miller; many Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.A celebration of his life will be held Friday, January 16th at 11am at Gorsline Runciman Funeral Home in DeWitt, MI.  A visitation will be held the hour prior.  Those wishing to make contributions in Jacob's name can do so at CHERUBS-Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Research, Awareness and Support or The Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation-Remembrance Photography.

To Our Precious Jacob:
We were so excited when we found out about you.  We knew from that moment that you were meant to be.  You were special from the very beginning.  We didn't realize it at the time, but you were more a part of our lives than we could have dreamed.  You were with your Mom and Dad on our wedding day.  You went to all your brothers' games and you were their biggest fan.  Your Dad got to take you to a Yankees game – and you "smelled" New York with us.  You spent a week at Silver Lake with us and Mommy even climbed the dunes with you.  You went to Yoga with Mom and later showed us your moves on ultrasound.  You went trick-or-treating with your brothers.  We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas together.  You were there with us for some of the happiest and saddest moments of our lives.  The day we found out that you were a boy, we were so excited!  The excitement quickly turned to fear and helplessness when we also found out that you had CDH (Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia).  How could this be happening to our sweet baby?  This occurs in 1 in 2500 to 5000 births.  We were told that you had a 50-60% chance of survival if it was not part of a genetic syndrome. They did the genetic testing and checked your tiny heart…everything came back normal!  We fought for you every single day, willing you to be strong. Every day you were in the thoughts and prayers of so many. You were loved by so many.  Ten weeks later, we got the devastating news that things were worse than they thought.  Your good lung was smaller than they thought and your hernia was very severe.  As we anxiously watched you moving around on the ultrasound, we saw that your tiny fingers hadn't separated as they were supposed to and some of the sutures in your skull were closing too early causing your forehead to push forward.  They think it is a rare genetic condition called Aperts Syndrome that occurs in around 1 in 120,000 births.  The odds were stacked against you.  We held on even tighter and cherished every day that you were alive in Mommy's tummy. You know the sacrifices Mommy made, putting you before her own health…no risk was too great in her eyes.  We got to watch you with the hiccups, stretching, yawning and moving at least once a week in ultrasounds. We knew that you loved to have your right hand up by your face while you slept.  We have an album full of your photos already.  We all loved to feel you move and talked to you every day.  We knew you loved milkshakes, you went crazy every time mom had one. You were a part of our lives every day before we even met you.  What a gift that we got to know you before you were even born. Even though you were taken from us too soon, we will forever be grateful for the time we spent with you and we will cherish every minute you fought to stay with us.  Although we still think about the plans that we had for you, we all know that they are just put on hold until we see you again.  You are teaching us so many life lessons and bringing our family closer than ever. We will all be better people having known and loved you. You fought hard for every minute of your short but blessed life so that you could be with us.  You knew that we needed that time with you.  Every one fell in love with you. We saw the perfect baby boy that you were, your earthly imperfections made you even more special.   We know you will be watching over us and taking care of us. You will forever be a part of us, in our hearts and in our thoughts.