"It's a girl ... we have to purchase another cemetery plot."

Can you imagine uttering these two phrases in the same breath?  The breadth and depth of heartache that our friend and her family faces, again, is unimaginable.  

Stephanie is the Catholic mother of seven children--2 living, 4 deceased, and Baby Bethany who is unborn and will ascend to heaven shortly after her birth.  Bethany has severe partial trisomy 13, and in her case it is presenting with brain, kidney, and heart abnormalities. 

During the months when most families prepare for a baby--comparing Consumer Reports car seat ratings and stockpiling diapers--Stephanie is selecting songs for a funeral service.

During the months when most families prepare older children for a new arrival--reading aloud picture books about how baby's arrival will change their daily life--Stephanie is explaining to her living daughters that their sister will die and join their other brothers and sisters in heaven.

Stephanie recently confessed that she is unsure how she will cover the expenses associated with Bethany's short life and imminent death.

These are the costs that our donations will assist Stephanie with:
* burying Bethany alongside her siblings 
* marking the grave with a modest garden marker
* taking 10 days of unpaid leave to heal and mourn

As I typed this and attempted to condense my beautiful friend's immeasurable pain into a few paragraphs, my eyes wet with tears, my throat constricted, my heart tightened. I hope what I've written strikes a chord of shared sorrow for her story, and of gratitude that this isn't YOUR story. I hope you'll consider making a donation to help our friends mourn their daughter and sister, so they can begin to heal.


Stephanie has documented her journey of loss and her efforts to courageously carry on, in her blog, Loving Peter.