International Bereaved Mother's Day

Today is International Bereaved Mother's Day.   You can read more about this day by clicking here.  

You have probably already seen "Kenley Around the World", and you may have even contributed a picture.  A few weeks ago, I signed up for a Mother's Day Name Event where I create children's names and take a picture to send to their mothers.  In return, I will receive pictures of Kenley's name.   All mothers participating have until the end of May to submit their pictures. 

At first, I wasn't sure how I wanted to complete these names, but I knew I wanted them to be meaningful.   I had the idea to use helium balloons since balloons are significant to me and symbolize Kenley's free and independent spirit.  I talked my wonderful photographer friend Jeanee into helping me out in her studio. All I had to do was bake her a batch of Kahlua brownies.  What a deal!    Creating these pictures presented many problems, but the two of us together were great problem solvers!    They kept twisting and turning and running into each other, causing pictures of names with missing letters. After a great deal of brain storming and even more maneuvering, we finally got it right. We rigged up a base and tied the balloons to them.  Then, we took a tiny piece of tape and stuck each balloon to the next to keep them from moving too much.   I added a pink balloon to the bunch to symbolize my little ninja.  The results were wonderful.

Before you scroll down to the pictures, let me tell you why they are so important to us.  A mother of loss only had a very small amount of time with her baby.  Some may have had no time whatsoever.  We have little or no memories of our child alive outside of our body.  While other children's growth and change can be captured on film, ours cannot.  We cannot celebrate birthdays.  We cannot send them off to their first day of school.  We cannot take them to the mall because they've outgrown most of their clothes - for the third time this month.  These name pictures are our way of keeping our baby's memory alive.   They are our way of having more than just the precious few photos the hospital may have taken before our baby was whisked away forever.  They are our way of watching our child grow and be a part of the world - the world beyond us and our own small circle.   They are our way to remember our babies and to make sure that other people remember them too.  After all, we are proud moms just like any other.   We want our children to be known.   We want people to recognize their worth and importance.  We want the world to know that we had a baby and they were wonderful!  We aren't "almost" mothers.  We aren't "used to be" mothers.  We aren't "maybe next time" mothers.  We are mothers.  All of us.  All the time.  The only difference between our child and yours is that you can hold your child in your arms and we hold ours only in our heart.    It's a good thing our hearts are big enough for such an enormous love.

Please take a moment to scroll through these pictures.   Read the names.  Remember these precious children.  Honor their strong as steel mothers by recognizing them for who they are.  Today and for always.

Megan's daughter

Danielle's son

Catherine's son

Kelly's son

Shauna's daughter

Katy's daughter

Crystal's daughter

Harmony's son

Jaimee's daughter

Naomi's son

Cassie's son

Colleen's son

Leah's daughter

My little ninja.  Always and forever.