Today we celebrated our son, Patrick’s, 4th birthday. Four. If I’m being honest, I think this has been the toughest birthday yet. I’ve very much felt the pull of life moving on without him, so today has been rough. I almost didn’t take Stitch to “school” this morning. We were very late, but we made [...]
Last week I spent some time with Pregnancy After Loss Support's founder, Lindsey Henke. At lunch before she dropped me off at the airport, we were chatting about our first born children--our stillbirths. She asked if Patrick was buried or cremated. I'm always a little defensive about this topic. I know we made the right [...]
Some families have a family crest. In our family, we have a family heart. See, we're storytellers--through words and illustrations. Through that storytelling, we show our love--for each other and for the world. If you are new to our family's story, let me try to catch you up. On our first date, my husband and [...]
I've been talking a lot about the magic of the holiday season this year. I feel it in me, and I see it in my daughter's eyes. Each night, she opens her Advent present so carefully, so expectantly, so delightfully. It's precious. I want to bottle these moments. But, if I was to be really [...]
We're excited to announce the return of Post-its for Patrick to celebrate Patrick's third birthday on April 2, 2017. Some may remember that we held our first Post-its for Patrick* to commemorate his due date, August 18, 2014. It was a twist on Random Acts of Kindness, and it brought us and others so much encouragement [...]
When the Usborne Books & More books arrived for Patrick's Christmas Books, Lloyd and I spent a significant amount of time going through the books and taking a peek at each one. We absolutely fell in love with each book. I had wanted to spend some time looking at them to see if there were [...]
As we approached Christmas this year, I found myself desperate to do something BIG in memory of Patrick. For his first two Christmases we made donations to one of our favorite charities, First Book. First Book provides books to children who otherwise wouldn't own their own books, and Lloyd and I both believe strongly in that [...]
As we build new family traditions with Stitch, especially as the holiday season has begun, Lloyd and I want to make sure that Patrick is included as often as possible. We want Stitch to know about her big brother. We want to say his name and hear others say his name. Halloween can be challenging for [...]
I’ve been trying to write Patrick’s birth story for months now, and I keep getting stuck on two words with which I clearly haven’t made peace. I haven’t been able to talk about the specifics of this part of Patrick’s birth with anyone. It’s the one place I hold a tremendous amount of guilt. I’m [...]
We found out that Doodlebug (what we called Patrick before he was born) was lagging in growth around 10 weeks gestation. The next ten weeks felt like whiplash between hope and devastation. I went to the OB clinic at least once a week, often twice a week. Sitting in that waiting room became a significant anxiety [...]
