Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day.  At 7PM, I lit a candle in honor of all the babies who never made it to the world or who left it too soon.  Too many family experience this heartache and it weighs particularly heavily on me this year.  

Even on the eve of being induced, I have thought about the angel we lost two years ago often today.  He would have been 20 months old.  He'd be walking and talking.  But we never got to meet him, instead he went to heaven in order to look out for his little sister.  I know he is up here looking out for us tomorrow.  

I think of my cousin and her family and their "Baby K".  I think of many friends who have lost babies.  And I think of all of those in the infertility community who have not only struggled to get pregnant, but then on top of it, have experienced loss.  My heart goes out to all of you.

I am so grateful to have carried this little baby girl to term, and we are so excited to meet her, but tonight, I anticipate it with a little bit heavier heart.  

If you know someone who has suffered the loss of a baby, please reach out to them and show you care.  You can find resources at October15.com

I'd like to leave you with a poem my cousin posted earlier:

“A Pair of Shoes”
Author Unknown

I am wearing a pair of shoes.
They are ugly shoes.
Uncomfortable shoes.
I hate my shoes.
Each day I wear them, and each day I wish I had another pair.
Some days my shoes hurt so bad that I do not think I can take another step.
Yet, I continue to wear them.
I get funny looks wearing these shoes.
They are looks of sympathy.
I can tell in others eyes that they are glad they are my shoes and not theirs.
They never talk about my shoes.
To learn how awful my shoes are might make them uncomfortable.
To truly understand these shoes you must walk in them.
But, once you put them on, you can never take them off.
I now realize that I am not the only one who wears these shoes.
There are many pairs in this world.
Some women are like me and ache daily as they try and walk in them.
Some have learned how to walk in them so they don’t hurt quite as much.
Some have worn the shoes so long that days will go by before they think about how much they hurt.
No woman deserves to wear these shoes.
Yet, because of these shoes I am a stronger woman.
These shoes have given me the strength to face anything.
They have made me who I am.
I will forever walk in the shoes of a woman who has lost a child.