Help Us Grow Ryleigh's Resources

On April 11th, 2021, our beautiful daughter Ryleigh was born still. It still feels like just yesterday that we heard the words every expecting parent fears, “I’m sorry…there is no heartbeat.” At that very moment our world was forever changed.

After our tragic loss, we spent a lot of time in reflection. Everywhere we looked was angst and sorrow. Ryleigh was a healthy baby girl. She had dark brown hair, olive skin like her mom and we imagine brown eyes like her sister Kinsley. But whether through bad luck or fate, at 40+ weeks she experienced an umbilical cord accident that stole her life out from under her. It happened so fast, and so unexpectedly, that we were left with a feeling of total numbness.

The “nevers” soon after crept into our minds. We will never see her first steps, her first birthday, her first graduation. It was a feeling of utter defeat. “Why us?” we asked every morning waking up and again every night falling asleep.

But from this grief crept an idea. A way to begin healing. An approach to help others where we so obviously stumbled in the days, weeks, and months after losing Ryleigh. We were lost souls leaving the hospital on April 12, 2022. Outside of the support from our friends and family, we felt we had few people to turn to that truly felt our pain. We didn’t know that support groups even existed, or how or where to seek them out. We didn’t know about financial aid opportunities, memory boxes, or urn necklaces. It was a scary and unknown world. And we felt so terribly alone within it.

Taking some time to get away, we made a trip down to Costa Rica. There on the beach, the first seeds of Ryleigh’s Resources blossomed. What if we made a site that collected the scattered pieces of pregnancy and infant loss and placed them all in one spot?

This is what you are funding:

Firstly the website that we hope will act as an entry point for lost and grieving parents (and friends and family). By sourcing many of the helpful links, sites, people, and groups in one spot, hopefully others will have an easier time finding the support they need.

Secondly, we want to give back to other parents experiencing loss. Part of your funding will go to sourcing memory boxes to be given to hospitals so grieving parents have what we didn’t in those terrible first moments. This of course will also be our best way to let the people who need us most know who we are.

Whether you are 24 hours out, one week out, a few months out, a few years out or even 20+ years out, we want to support others going through these tragic events. Losing a child is the most horrific thing that can happen and unfortunately thousands of people across the world are experiencing loss every single day.

As we learned there are never the right words to offer, but having someone to lean on is everything. The loss community is a very special community. No one wants to be a part of it, but the members are the most kind-hearted people you will ever meet.

Please help us support other people and parents going through pregnancy and infant loss. Please help us make their grief journey a little easier. And please help us in honoring and remembering our daughter Ryleigh Sienna. This is ours, and her, way to give back. Thank you so much in advance for your donation. It is very much appreciated and we know other loss parents will feel the same.