Sympathy Gifts for Pregnancy & Infant Loss

Daddy and Stillborn Son Share Birthday's

2008-01-24T13:46:00.000-05:00

Our Children are Just a Cloud Away

www.justacloudaway.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2003

6 LONG MONTHS
2 PINK LINES
EXCITEMENT, JOY, GOOSEBUMPS
JUNGLE NURSERY
1ST KICKS-MAY 29, 2003
BABY SHOWERS
CONTRACTIONS
TODD’S BIRTHDAY PRESENT
TAKE A SHOWER
CALL DOCTOR
EXCITEMENT, JOY, GOOSEBUMPS
WAITING ROOM
SMALL EXAMINING ROOM
BRIGHT, WHITE FLUORESCENT LIGHTS
FETAL DOPPLER
SILENCE
TODD
OXYGEN MASK
3 NURSES
NO WORDS
SONOGRAM
EXPRESSIONLESS
TODD ASKS
NO, NO, NO
TODD AND I
EV, PARENTS, CARRIE AND RON
NO, NO, NO
SWALLOW HEART
WHITE ROSE ON DOOR
12 HOURS
NURSE TRACY
BABY TANNER
SILENCE
TEARS, LOVE, EMPTINESS
BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY
OUR SON
5 POUNDS 4 OUNCES, 21 INCHES LONG
TANNER LEE WILLIAMS

Free Landscape Consultations

2008-01-16T15:12:00.000-05:00

Saint Pius X Church in Greensboro, NC is in need of a much larger church to accommodate new families that join daily.
I am offering free 1 hour landscape consultations to members of the church ,with donations being made to the building fund. The consultations are a $100 value and appointments can be made until February 29Th, 2008.
Consultations regarding landscape design, problem areas, drought, memory gardens honoring loved ones passed or any other landscape issues can be addressed. You may even want to give as a gift to a family member or friend that could need a little guidance.
Contact information can be found on the last page of the bulletin.

Unique Memory Gardens for Heavenly Angels

2008-01-09T15:18:00.000-05:00

Giving the gift of a memory garden to honor a child, infant or pregnancy loss can have therapeutic properties while comforting bereaved families of heavenly angels. The amount of love for a child that has died is unchanged; however, the future of the family has changed dramatically. Gardens can be designed reflecting a parent’s love, the deceased child’s personality and story or a beautiful place of peace for spiritual contemplation. Family and friends supporting bereaved families can take the initiative in the design or implementation of the deceased child’s memory garden. The finished gardens can offer comfort while memorializing a life unexpectedly cut short. Even if the grieving families do not have an outdoor plant bed; pots, containers, water fountains and statuary can be utilized for their memory gardens. This could be a place of peace where new traditions will begin sharing stories of their precious baby. To see other memory gardens please visit http://justacloudaway.com/nav-sidebar-ideas/garden.html

The planning, construction and purchasing phases of their baby’s memory garden can provide parents a creative outlet for energy otherwise used to care for their living child, especially if there are no other children. The thought of creating a garden for their angel may be an overwhelming task without your help and support. Family and friends can participate in the design and implementation of the garden, taking away some of the stress, manpower and funds needed.

If a professional landscape designer is desired, you may want to purchase the design to identify plants and other materials needed for easy installation. Memory garden books or memory garden tutorials http://justacloudaway.com/kits/index.html may also be purchased for helpful ideas and suggestions. Installing the wrong plant material may result in the death of a plant. A memory garden is not a garden for incorrect plants to be used with little or no chance of survival. This is why memory gardens cannot be designed solely on the definition of plant names.

If the bereaved parents have suffered a miscarriage, selective reduction, ectopic pregnancy or an early pregnancy loss never knowing the baby’s gender, incorporate neutral colors of green, yellow and white. Please view article “Pregnancy Loss Memory Gardens Blooming White” on this blog at http://shivere.wordpress.com/category/memory-gardens/ for a beautiful moon lit memory garden. The yellow blooms on black-eyed susans, primulas, yarrow, daylily, coreopsis, sedum, goldenrod and mums are good perennial choices. Shrubs having beautiful yellow blooms are; potentilla, santolina, roses, kerria, azalea and forsythia. Trees having yellow or cream blooms are; magnolia, golden chain, stewartia, golden rain, and japanese tree lilac. A few lovely plants with green flowers or foliage to try are; helleborus foetidus, hosta, liriope, sedum, creeping jenny, hen and chicks, euphorbia, tulip, daffodil, roses, honey locust tree, buckeye tree, and yellow poplar tree.

The positive pregnancy test of grieving parents can determine the approximate due date. This information can provide the baby’s zodiac sign and symbol, gemstone, element and personality trait. Please view article “Zodiac Signs for Miscarriage and Pregnancy Losses” on this blog at, http://shivere.wordpress.com/category/scrapbooking/
This information can be utilized in creating their child’s memory garden. If there is only enough space for a container garden, purchase stencils or make your own to spray paint these elements on stepping stones, pots or other outdoor containers holding plant material. Personalize containers, birdfeeders, wind chimes and other garden art to reflect their child’s essence.

If the deceased child was a little boy or girl, many beautiful plants with flower or leaf color will appeal to either gender. Other factors to consider are berry color and the leaf color in autumn. To add wonderful contrast in a little girl’s garden include a mix of plants with burgundy foliage and plants blooming pink. Memory gardens for little boys could have a mix of blue flowering plants and plants with gray and silver foliage. If the memory garden is to be used to engage your sense of touch, installing plants with soft, fuzzy textures will soothe fingers and toes.

A memory garden for a baby girl could include plants with pink blooms on tree, shrubs, perennials, annuals or bulbs. A few annuals and bulbs are; periwinkle, impatiens, petunias, fuchsia, begonias, crocus, tulips and dahlias. Perennials with pink blooms are found on; creeping phlox, ice plant, gaura, helleborus, peony, iris, dianthus, and anemone. Shrubs for a little girl could include; camellia, hibiscus, roses, abelia, lilac, butterfly bush, hydrangea and indian hawthorne. A few trees with an explosion of pink blooms are; cherry, crabapple, plum, dogwood, mimosa, crape myrtle and eastern redbud. Plants having burgundy foliage to add beautiful contrast with pink blooming plants are; loropetalum, heuchera, ajuga, grasses, cleyera, ‘Forest Pansy” Redbud tree and purple smoketree, and barberry.

A memory garden for a little boy could include a variety of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals or bulbs that offer blue flower, foliage or berry colors. Annuals and bulbs offering blue blooms include; muscari, hyacinth, anemone, scilla, lobelia, petunia, viola, ageratum, salvia, and torenia. Perennials with blue blooms or foliage are found on; globe thistle, “Johnson’s Blue” geranium, salvia, columbine, aster, pulmonaria, blue fescue, “Blue Angel” or “Blue Moon” hosta, “Heavenly Blue” lithodora, lavender, gentiana, campanula, iris, delphiniums, and russian sage. Shrubs for a little boy’s garden could include; hydrangea, “Blue Bird” hibiscus, blue spirea, leatherleaf mahonia, blueberry shrubs, and butterfly bush. Plants having silver or gray foliage to add beautiful contrast with plants bearing blue flowers are; woolly thyme, silver artemisia, dusty miller, lamb’s ear, rose champion, and snow in summer.

Mazus, lamb’s ear, woolly thyme and creeping sedum are interesting to the touch for fingers and toes. Some of these plants can tolerate light foot traffic and planted between stone and brick pavers for a softer look. Creeping sedum was used in Tanner’s garden http://justacloudaway.com/nav-sidebar-ideas/garden.html.

Here is a link to a website providing wonderful pictures and descriptions of plant material you may want to include in your baby’s memory garden
http://bailey.virtual-services.net/presslib/browse/perennials

My son’s garden was a place for my husband and me to design and build for our baby that was only here but a brief time. A beautiful celebration to dedicate his garden took place after completion. We decorate accordingly for the holidays and fly balloons for his birthday. Sweet little Tanner’s ashes are at the base of the cross, butterfly ornaments and angel statuary placed within the blooms of the flowers. My living son and me visit often to pull weeds, prune, water and think about him. It’s not just a garden; it has a title, Tanner’s Garden.

Angel Gardens for Bereaved Families

2007-12-22T16:33:00.000-05:00

I will be composing an article on the gift of a garden for those families grieving the loss of their children. There are so many families that have not focused on the space of the garden but solely on one particular plant. This is not an ideal situation because of the possibility of the plant dying. This may create anxiety and parents might feel this is a "sign" from their angel. I will provide tips and ideas to create something wonderful to honor your children.

I wish you a very peaceful holiday, stay warm and happy 2008.

Peace Love and Hugs from Above

Diana

Sympathy Baskets and Gifts for Pregnancy and Infant Loss

2007-12-18T12:14:00.000-05:00

Sympathy Gifts assembled in a basket can take away some of the pressure in finding the one appropriate gift for bereaved families of pregnancy and infant loss. The baskets can provide items that are helpful, comforting and supportive for the grieving families. Whether their baby was stillborn, passed of SIDS or miscarried, you can provide hope, love and support in a basket for their healing journey.

Do not think you have to send a sympathy gift or basket the moment the tragedy occurs. Many people are doing so already. You may want to take a little time to gather gifts that you feel are appropriate for pregnancy or infant loss. Your sympathy basket has no time frame. Usually 3-6 months after their loss, people around them are continuing with the routines of everyday life. This is also a difficult time for the bereaved and may even brighten their day by receiving gifts months after their child has died. This is showing you care about them as well as the life of their baby that ended too soon.

Sympathy gifts included within the baskets could be something practical, memorial keepsakes or items completely unrelated that would appeal to the personality, hobby or style of the bereaved. Having a mix of these gifts will provide families alternative outlets to channel their grief over the loss of their precious baby. These are all sympathy gifts because you have in mind the relationship between the family and the baby at heart. This relationship has changed form and new traditions will evolve from the gifts received by families suffering this terrible loss.

It is a very good idea to add practical products within a sympathy basket. This will alleviate the pressure of having to get dressed and enter into public to buy necessary items. There are always babies and pregnant women at grocery, department or hardware stores that may upset the mother for quite some time. Add paper plates, napkins, plastic silverware, paper towels or tissues. The first days following the death of their baby are filled with tears, stress and chaos. These supplies will eliminate the need to wash dishes, providing more time to be spent on comforting, talking and other important matters. Other practical gifts for your basket are stamps, stationary, and envelopes. You could even write a note stating that you could mow or shovel their property for the next month. If you are not local, purchase a month long contract from a company nearby. Another gift that inevitably helps is money. Most likely the parents have taken unexpected time off from work and a few extra dollars could help out tremendously.

Memorial keepsakes are a very good idea when assembling your sympathy basket. There are numerous products available to bereaved families of pregnancy and infant loss. Jewelry, remembrance kits, virtual memorials, frames, ornaments, stars, journals, memory trees, stepping stones, books and statuary. If there is a support group that helped the parents through this difficult time, make a donation in memory of their child. If the parents belong to a church, have a service said in memory of their baby. These remembrance gifts are the personal touches of your baskets and can provide such comfort at a time when life feels so empty and cold.
There is nothing wrong with including items not related to the loss of their baby like a trade magazine subscription or purchasing a craft or hobby kit. Adding gifts that specifically appeal to the bereaved parents provides an opportunity to engage in hobbies, crafts and activities that may bring joy to their lives.

There will be times when the words on a sympathy card or written in a book will upset or offend families grieving the loss of their baby. Offering a sympathy basket with several gifts of different characteristics will lessen the effects of the one gift that just didn’t offer the comfort you intended. Make sure when writing the special little note to include their baby’s name somewhere in the card. If they didn’t name the baby, somehow acknowledge that they are parents, they have a baby and they love their little angel.