Hi Kristi,

I'm sorry those involved are in this situation now. It's heartbreaking. I do want to share some things with you.

You asked, "Do you know at what stage in development the soul enters the body prior to birth?"

It's deeper than that. There is a common belief in our society that at some point, the spirit and body combine. There's much debate over that because of abortion.

However, it's based on misunderstandings. It assumes that there's a law of the universe that dictates when an eternal self begins to use a body, and that once the self begins using the body, somehow the person becomes the body. However, there is no such law. What happens for every individual, including the person who will be using that child's body, the parents, and those around, is entirely personal and not subject to laws. Whatever is in the best interests of the people involved in their spiritual journeys is what will happen.

And the body is never the person. The eternal self accompanying the body of an unborn child, a toddler, or an 80 year old woman, is never a body. We really shouldn't try to think of a body at any age as being the person. The body is just a garment, and like a garment, it can be put on or shed without affecting the person wearing it.

The question remains, of course: "When does the eternal self put on the garment?"

The individual, the eternal self, that enters a point of Earth school time, will come at some point. It could be with this family or with another family, but what happens to the bodies of the families really makes no difference. That person will incarnate.

What we hear from those on the greater realms of reality is that people incarnate in soul groups. We've known each other before. Your father may have played the role of your sister before. Your son may have been your mother. We stay with each other. And what I have heard in accounts from those living in the other planes is that an individual may have chosen to incarnate in one body, but that doesn't work out for some reason. That individual will simply incarnate in another body in the same family or a related family. The incarnation will occur. And it apparently occurs within the same soul group. But it just may not occur the way we, looking at it from the narrow perspective of the Earth plane, think it will.

As far as when the eternal self and the body unite, there never is really a specific moment. The self was involved with that body from before the parents even conceived the child. The individual was part of the soul group planning the family. So I've heard people on the next realms of life speak of a spiritual birth that happens with the physical birth, and of the eternal self not using the body in consequential ways until the body is old enough to start making decision. But the reason they speak of these different stages is that the person is never the body, and different stages in the person's spiritual use of the body happen at different times.

However, here's what's most important. You love that unborn baby. That's very important. The individual who would use that body knows that. This person isn't an unborn infant, but rather an eternal self, with you now, who knows you. That person feels your love! And returns your love. That love for this unborn infant makes the individual associated with that baby's body very possibly stay with that identity, as that baby carried by that mother. And so, that individual that wasn't born alive onto the Earth plane may grow up on the next plane of life. I know of many accounts of born infants that have done so. I would expect that the same would be true of the unborn. It happens because of your love, though, not because the eternal self is locked into that body. Our love for each other means much more than we realize. It is primary in the spiritual realm.

So the short answer is that the person you love may incarnate into your extended family or into this mother using another body, or may grow up on the other side into young adulthood. In any event, you eventually will have a reunion with that person, as the individual who was associated with that unborn infant. What will now happen with that individual's incarnation is something we can't predict, but the results will be perfectly in line with that person's spiritual needs, and ultimately with yours, and eventually you will come to know the individual who was going to incarnate with that body.

Love and peace, Craig