A Special Day (and walk) to honor all those babies that are no longer with us!

On Saturday we got to participate in the Hope and Hearts Run/Walk in support of Team Briana. My and Andrew's friends from high school lost their little girl at 37 weeks to an umbilical cord accident in 2007. The organization we walked in support for is called Missing Grace it provides grief support and raises awareness for all types of pregnancy loss (ie miscarriage/stillborns), infertility issues, and infancy loss.

Anyone who knows our family knows that we had two back to back miscarriages in spring of 2008. When Andrew and I decided to add to our family we thought it would be as simple as that, little did we know what life had in store for us. I never knew what true grief was until April 22, 2008 when we lost our first baby. I never knew that it would hurt so much to lose something that had only been with us for such a short period of time, and then to turn around the next month and experience the same thing again. Losing those two has forever changed me as a person. There is always a piece of me that will never be whole. But at the same time it taught me so much about life. It has taught me to cherish what we do have here, and be thankful for the time I have been given to spend with my family. I am forever thankful that I have been blessed with two beautiful children, who bring joy and laughter into my house daily. I have also learned that life does not always give you what you want, but if you are willing to accept that there will always be a lesson to be learned from it no matter what it is.

So on Saturday we walked to support Briana and remember the short time she was with her family. We also walked to remember our two little ones (Hope and Faith) who we never got to meet, but were with us long enough to change us forever. And we also walked to support all the other families and friends who lost little ones.

I will end this blog with a poem I have in our bedroom:

Just Those Few Weeks

For those few weeks -

I had you to myself

And that seems too short a time

To be changed so profoundly.

In those few weeks -

I came to know you...

And to love you

You came to trust me with your life.

Oh, what a life I had planned for you!

Just those few weeks -

When I lost you,

I lost a lifetime of hopes,

Plans, dreams, and inspirations.

A slice of my future simply vanished overnight.

Just those few weeks -

It wasn't enough time to convince others

How special and important you were.

How odd, a truly unique person has recently died

And no one is mourning the passing.

Just a mere few weeks -

And no "normal" person would cry all night

Over a tiny unfinished baby,

Or get depressed and withdrawn day after endless day.

No one would, so why am I?

You were just those few weeks, my Little One.

You darted in and out of my life too quickly.

But it seems that's all the time you needed

To make my life so much richer

And give me a small glimpse of eternity.

To my two Angels may I meet you some day

4/22/08 & 6/9/2008