69 results for search: stillbirth

Testimony Tuesday: Cuddle Cot in Honor of Hope Babies

I wanted to do something big for my triplets’ 5th birthday. My husband and I decided we wanted to fundraise for a Cuddle CotTM. A Cuddle Cot is a cooling device used to preserve a body while parents say goodbye to their baby in the hospital. Having more time with the baby is a precious gift for parents grieving after stillbirths and neonatal deaths—making the most of those last moments they will spend together here. Cuddle Cots in Honor of My Niece, My Triplets, and Hope Mommies We started the campaign in August of 2014. I imagined a year was a good amount of time to raise the money by my triplets’ 5th birthday, which was in August of 2015. ...

#ILoveHopeMommies and a Giveaway!

Thank you for considering making a donation to the ministry of Hope Mommies through our #ILoveHopeMommies Fundraising Campaign.  It is estimated that, in the United States alone, 1 in 4 women will experience miscarriage, stillbirth or infant loss.  This is a staggering number, and one, quite honestly, I never knew existed until it happened to me.  We greatly appreciate donors like you who are the hands and feet of Jesus in this broken world. The women we support carry a story within and throughout themselves that no mother should ever have to.  Yet, these women are among the loveliest and bravest I have ever met.&n...

Megan’s Story

Two Octobers ago we were living in Colorado when I had my first positive pregnancy test. My husband Ryan and I had been praying for a child. While we were both so excited, I could not shake the feeling that something might not have been right. Ryan had to leave for military training for the early months of my pregnancy, and that didn’t help. I struggled with antepartum depression and had only just come out of the woods when Ryan was finally able to come back, just in time for us to learn that our first baby was a little girl! We named her Eden Olivia. A few weeks later at Eden’s anatomy scan, the technician had to step away to get the doctor ...

Testimony Tuesdays {Hope Box Gathering}

Some days are more memorable than others. This was just such a day. Because on this day, I put hope in a box and tied it up with a jute twine bow.   This day was years in the making.   This day was the culmination of months and months of planning. This day, wishing turned into reality. This day helped give my pain meaning. This day helped give my baby's death purpose. Somehow, putting hope in a box and tying it up with a bow for another mother who lost her baby helped answer the "why" of losing mine. I wish there were not a need for one more Hope Box ever again. But because the need is unfortunately so great, I wish ...

Choose Hope 2016

The pain of losing a child, whether to miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss, is among the most agonizing of sorrows.  Whether your loss occurred many years ago or very recently, the ache you carry in your heart is heavy indeed.  There is nothing that can prepare you for the devastation of losing a child, and there are no words that can take away the pain that results.   But dear one, your grief does not need to be carried alone. For the past ten years, our nation has officially recognized October 15 as an opportunity to honor and remember our precious babies who have gone home before us, and to spread awareness of the tragedy that befalls 1 in ...

Beautiful Inheritance {Hope Mommies 2017 Retreat Theme}

Please tell me I am not the only one that has ever skimmed over a word they didn’t know the meaning of in the Bible?  Miktam.  That was my word.  Read it.  Didn’t understand it.  Moved on.  But one day, several years ago, I sat in church as my pastor read Psalm 16 aloud.  “Psalm 16.  You Will Not Abandon My Soul.  A Miktam of David.”  But then he paused and looked up.  He asked if anyone knew what the word Miktam meant.  I sat in my chair hoping that no one else knew the meaning either so that I would finally be able to learn about this mysterious word.  No one in the ...

Julia’s Story

“I’m sorry, I normally can see a heartbeat in a baby this size, but I don't.” “I’m sorry, this doesn't look to me like a viable pregnancy.” Two different pregnancies, two different ultrasound techs, two different lives lost. And my heart broken two different times. The doctors say it’s good that my two “missed” miscarriages didn't happen in a row. I had a healthy son between the two of them. But that didn't comfort me. Nothing can comfort a woman who has just found out her baby “isn't viable.” Nothing but the love of Jesus. The first time I miscarried, the pregnancy was not planned. I still, however, cried buckets of ...

Hope Group Testimonies

Hope Groups are small groups of women who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth or infant loss (up to two years of age) at any point in their life. It’s a collection of women who meet and share their stories with one another, pray together, ask questions, share hurts, share happinesses, and cling to His Word to find that there is still hope after the death of their precious sons and daughters. Hope Groups are nine-week Bible study small groups. Some meet online through Facebook and some meet in person. Each group will establish a specific meeting time. Even if you can’t make it for that specific time each week, the topics ...

Letter from Jennifer, Hope Mommies Director {Give a Latte GIVEAWAY}

It's hard to believe that I have lived on this side of Heaven for almost 6 years without my daughter. When her heart stopped beating, I thought that mine would too. The sting of death is very real. I felt like the only person who had ever had a stillborn baby.  That was August 2010.  Little did I know that states away from me, only a few months later, another mama would be saying goodbye to her beloved daughter, too, and that years later we would connect and it would profoundly change my life.  When Erin Cushman said goodbye to her daughter on this earth, God put the mission and vision of Hope Mommies upon her heart and she was obedient. What ...

Feed Your Soul: The Glory to Come, Part I {Grief & Hope}

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 2 Corinthians 4:17   There is something that far outweighs baby loss. This statement is tremendously difficult to believe because this experience is weighty.   If you are like me, this is how you feel:   This is the weightiest experience of your life.  You were not prepared in advance for the loss of your child.  This child was within you; his or her body could grow because yours sustained him or her.  And so, when your child ceased to grow or your child’s heart ceased to beat, in a sense, you ...