Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day 2013

The Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Movement began in America in October 1988 (less than a year before I was born), when President Ronald Reagan designated the month of October as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.

Today (October 15th) is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. To recognize this beautiful, sacred day, people worldwide will be lighting candles at 7 P.M., letting them burn for an hour. Then just as their candles are burning out, other people in the next time zone will be lighting their candles. This will create a Wave of Light that lasts for 24 hours. Whether you have lost a baby or not, please take part in the Wave of Light tonight to honor my Lily and all babies of Heaven. If you light one for Lily, I'd love for you to take a photo of it to send to me, or just tell me about it.

Today was a very special day for me. My grandmother who also lost a baby is visiting this week. This morning, I took her to see the pregnancy center where I volunteer. Then, my grandmother treated us to lunch at Cracker Barrel (my favorite restaurant and where we eat for Lily's birthday each year). My mom, grandmother, new sister-in-law and I ate together. After that, we came to my house where we visited for a while before lighting our candles at 7 for the Wave of Light.

I got a new lantern for 50% off at Cracker Barrel and put several tea light candles inside. I lit one specifically for Lily, Bumma (what we call my grandmother) lit one for my Aunt Rachel, my mom lit one for Luke Shiloh, Kala my sister-in-law, and my twin brothers Adam and Joseph, lit candles for special loved and missed babies we know. And then I lit the last candle for all babies in Heaven with parents around the world missing them. We sat on the porch in the beautiful chilly October evening with our pumpkin-spice coffee and just soaked up the moment. It was perfect. I just wanted a relaxing, peaceful night of remembrance and this turned out to be just that.

Here is a video I took of the candles burning for our babies...

Here are the pictures that friends sent me today...

"For Hannah and any other mother who has lost a child"
Thank you Sierra

Thank you Mandi

Thank you Denae

Thank you Lisa

Thank you Catherine

Thank you Roxy for including my Lily in this beautiful drawing

The drawing with the names of many babies of Heaven by candlelight

In 2010 on this day, we went to a special service in Raleigh. They have stopped holding that service which stinks, but I plan on starting one up myself in the next couple years as a ministry for local babyloss parents. In 2011 on this day, I was at Ellerslie and went to Lily Lake! Then last year, we tried to go to the local service because it still said on their website they were doing it, so a group of us tried to go and found out only when we arrived at the church that they weren't having it. After looking forward to it so much, I was so bummed out. We were going to get coffee with some friends as a plan b, only to end up in a car accident. Nobody was hurt (thank God) and though the coffee shop was closed, we ended up going to a random McDonald's to have ice-cream with our friends. It wasn't what we had planned, but it ended up special nonetheless. This year was so incredible having my grandmother here. :)

Thank you to anyone else who lit a candle for Lily. I hope everyone had a peaceful day of remembrance, whether you lost your baby to stillbirth, miscarriage, SIDS, a fatal diagnose, or however. It was so beautiful scrolling through my Facebook news feed today and seeing so many posts and pictures of/about the Wave of Light and Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. It warmed my heart and reminded me that I'm not the only one who knows this grief... or this profound love...

Click HERE to read a blog post that captures why October 15th matters.

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