One Last Christmas

This is a video that everyone needs to see ~ you will be touched beyond words and emotions.

Why Your Heart Aches when it Breaks

I thought this was a very interesting article and worth passing on.

Why Your Heart Aches when it Breaks
Ever have a heartache? A throbbing pride that feels like it’s going to burst your chest? New research on social emotions like empathy and appreciation has shown that the way people describe potent feelings is more than metaphor: It’s scientifically accurate.

People experiencing admiration or compassion in the brain will ‘recruit’ nearby neurons to help them feel the emotion physically,” reports Search (July-Aug. 2009). “Intriguingly, the neural systems that get recruited often link to the body’s guts and viscera.” When terrible news punches you in the stomach, your brain helps you quite literally suffer the blow.

The findings come courtesy of a team of researchers led by University of Southern California psychologist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, who took the somewhat unusual step of researching positive social emotions after working as a junior high school teacher made her curious about how inspiration functions. There’s a disproportionate amount of research into fear and aggression, Search explains, because for brain scientists those emotions are “low-hanging fruit.” Easy to induce, simple to spot on an MRI.

Social emotions like compassion, however, are a uniquely human trait; no other creatures share them. Unlocking them requires some strategy—Immordino-Yang found it difficult to consistently “move” subjects—but the results lend insight into the very core of being human.

Angry

*names have been changed to protect the guilty*
On Friday, my friend Amanda told me that her co-worker's daycare provider, Jessica, was pregnant. Jessica just had a baby in June. My thoughts were, "Wow, Jessica is sure going to be busy with two littles ones so close in age." Before I could voice those thoughts, Amanda told me that Jessica was driving across the state to get an abortion because she "couldn't afford another kid." Even though Stacy (Amanda's co-worker) told Jessica that she thought what she was doing was wrong, and that it would haunt her for the rest of her life, and that there were many people out there who would adopt that baby. None of the pleas of Stacy could deter Jessica from murdering her preborn baby. Saturday morning, she drove across the state and had a "procedure" (I love how we can call murder a "procedure" ~ has a nice clean innocent sound to it huh? When really this "procedure" leaves one dead and one wounded for life) ~ this same day, an acquaintance from my home church lost their tiny baby boy.
Yes I felt like screaming and shaking my fist at God....ummmm HELLO? Is anyone home NOW? Why not let the baby who was so wanted live, and let the baby who was "unwanted" pass peacefully before his/her mother could kill him/her?
Why have I not come to grips that life will never make sense? That horrid things will happen all the time and there is nothing I can do to stop or prevent them?
On days like this, life seems so futile.

Prayer After Miscarriage or Stillbirth

Prayer After Miscarriage or Stillbirth


God, we are weary and grieved. We were anticipating the birth of a child, but the promise of life was ended too soon. Our arms yearned to cradle new life, our mouths to sing soft lullabies. Our hearts ache from the emptiness and the silence. We are saddened and we are angry. We weep and we mourn. Weep with us, God, Creator of Life, for the life that could not be.



Source of healing, help us to find healing among those who care for us and those for whom we care. Shelter us under wings of love and help us to stand up again for life even as we mourn our loss.



Author Unknown

October 15th

On the 15th of Oct, we remember all babies born sleeping, those whom we have carried but never met and those we have held but could not take home. Break the silence. In memory of all the littlest angels. I remember you. You happened and I will always love you.


Every soul that comes into this world
comes here with a very specific mission. When that mission is
completed, the soul can leave. The holiest of souls need so little time
here in this world that some never even make it outside the womb,
others only need their heart to beat once, others not even that.
~ Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh ~

Loss

And can it be that in a world so full and busy the loss of one creature makes a void so wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth of eternity can fill it up!
~Charles Dickens

One

It came and it went....one person remembered....one.
No, that one person was not my husband. No that one person was not a family member. No that one person was not a IRL friend. That one person was someone I met online a few years ago due to our common parenting interests.
It may seem selfish or self-absorbed of me or just downright laughable, but how does a day as all-consuming, completely horrific and traumatic as the day your baby died just "slip" from the mind? For the most part this is aimed at my husband, at my parents, my sister.
But then again, I guess it is time for me to "move on" (or so I've been told numerous times over the past year) ~ and their complete lack of acknowledgement of Emelia's angelversary hurts more than words could ever express. But what should I have expected? I've walked alone for the past year and will continue to do so.