71 results for tag: Infant Loss
My husband and I were married for nine years before we decided it was time for us to start a family. We had a lot of difficulty getting pregnant. I was diagnosed with endometriosis, which can cause infertility and pain. The only treatment was surgery. Just a couple of months after I had the surgery, we found out we were expecting a baby. We were so thrilled that the surgery had worked and that we were now going to be a family of three. We also found a new church home during this time; everything was going great.
At about 10 weeks pregnant, I found out that the baby had no heartbeat. I was so distraught over the loss of our baby, I did not ...
At 20 weeks pregnant, we went to our anatomy scan. We were excited to find out if our baby would be a girl or a boy. We had no idea during our scan that we were about to find out more than just the gender. We were casually told, “It looks like a little girl.” I was so happy!
However, this joy was short lived as the sonographer braced herself to tell us that our baby’s heart did not look like it should, which suggested she had a heart condition. I burst into tears and cried most of that day. But I held on to hope that our baby would be okay.
We knew at that stage that her name was Evangeline, which means “messenger of good news or the ...
On March 4, 2018, our beautiful daughter, Scarlett Kay Raymond, entered this world as a healthy, full term baby. My husband, Seth, and I were so excited to meet our sweet girl, take her home, and start our lives as a family of three. We had spent the last nine months dreaming up all of the adventures we had ahead of us. We couldn’t wait to take her on a walk in the stroller with our dog, Pepper. We pictured many story times and movie nights. We thought about the hard conversations we would have with her as she grew up and the trips we could take with her, and imagined her wedding day. We had planned so much. But God’s plan was different than ...
I once heard grief explained as if it were an ocean. We walk along the shore admiring the waves and then they unexpectedly brush against our feet. Sometimes the waves stay around our ankles, sometimes they carry us out waist deep, and sometimes they overwhelm us as if we were drowning; but at the end of the day we always end up back upon the shore being carried by our heavenly Father.
I have always clung to Esther 4:14, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as ...
My growth in trusting God’s faithfulness started before I got pregnant. When I was 45, I worked hard to worship God with my body by being careful to keep it as healthy as possible in case I would be blessed with another pregnancy. I had heard many negative things about older mothers, and did not have many people in my life who were supportive of me wanting to have another child at my age. If I were able to have another child, I knew it would be for God’s glory, and l would be dedicated to the task of raising him or her to know and love God.
I became pregnant in 2023 with my eighth baby, thirty years since my first pregnancy. I had an amazingly ...
My husband Andy and I have two beautiful girls, and we were debating whether or not to have another baby. We didn’t really feel strongly one way or another, but wanted to be obedient to the Lord. So we decided to start trying and see what God had in store for us.
The second month of trying and, bam! I was pregnant. It took five or six months to get pregnant with the girls, and the baby that we named Birch and lost at 9 weeks (between our girls), so we were absolutely shocked. As we wrapped our heads around the idea of being a family of five, our excitement grew. We dreamed of a little boy or a little girl and thought of names and wondered what ...
This is my least favorite season of the year. I know what you are thinking based on my rather pale complexion. You think I mean the hot, sunny summer season, right? While it may be true that I avoid the sun and heat like the plague, the season I am referring to is this yearly season of grief that coincides with summer's first day. You see, my sweet, much-loved twin sons Matthew and Caleb were born on the first day of summer.
The first day of summer is the longest day of the year for me, not because of the summer solstice, but because it is the beginning of my living nightmare. Matty died that day. I only held him, wrapped in a soft yellow blanket ...
My husband and I were at the hospital for a routine 20-week ultrasound for our second daughter. She had a strong heartbeat and was very active, but the exam took longer than it should have, and anxiety started to creep in. When the doctor told us that all was not well with our baby, the bottom fell out of my heart.
“Unfortunately, this baby has some things wrong with her.”
Those words will forever echo in my memory.
The doctor went on to explain that our baby had multiple serious physical defects, and more testing was needed to determine the exact nature of her condition. After answering our questions and going over a number of different ...
I found out I was pregnant in May of 2017. When I told my husband, we celebrated together, full of joy and excitement. Before we knew if we were having a boy or a girl, we were trying to pick our top names. I thought of Audrey, and instantly fell in love with the name. I knew that if we had a girl that would be her name. The meaning of Audrey is “noble strength.” We wanted to give our child a first name that had a strong meaning, and to me, Audrey was perfect. When I was 20 weeks, we were getting ready to find out the sex of the baby, and were both almost certain that the baby was going to be a boy. But she was a girl! Looking back now, this was ...
Eleanor “Ellie” Love Kropchuk was the most beautiful surprise. In March 2017, my husband, Matthew, and I were so excited to find out she was on the way to join big brother Timothy (three years old) and big sister Caroline (20 months). Since I already have two children, pregnancy was nothing new for me. But Ellie was different. My doctor even commented at one point, as we laughed together about how active Ellie always was, that this pregnancy was just different than the others.
Around seven months into my pregnancy, I created a playlist that I would listen to during my birthing time. God often uses music to minster to me in very unique and ...
