Winners Announced and Another Giveaway (One of my Favorite Books)

O.K...time to announce the winners of the Memorial Pin Giveaway.

The Blue Ribbon goes to Tucker's mommy, Lizy...
The Pink Ribbon goes to Olivia's mommy, Cynthia...
The White Ribbon goes to Mommy Ivy...

Congratulations! Please email me your addresses ASAP so that I can ship your pins tomorrow. I want to make sure that you receive them by Friday!

I wish we had enough to give everyone one of Franchesca's gorgeous flourishes. But, we do have something else we'd love to give to a sweet mom missing her baby.

One of my favorite books was given to us by my aunt Kelly, after we said good-bye to our sweet Thomas Patrick. It's called: Mommy Please Don't Cry. I love it so much, because it is told from the perspective of a child who has gone home to heaven. I love to think of my babies in heaven. Focusing on heaven's glory and all the joy they are experiencing gives me strength and hope as I still dream of and long for my sweet little ones. I pray this book, and the hope of heaven will bring you comfort as well.

To enter, please leave a comment sharing what brings you comfort as you think of your sweet baby in heaven. What do you think he/she is enjoying as he/she spends time in the glory of heaven?

I love to think of Faith and Grace and Thomas (If he's willing to have tea party...Or maybe he's off playing ball!) having tea parties in heaven with Grandma Kathy. I love to think of them running in a meadow with their long brown hair, filled with ribbons...laughing deep belly giggles. Thomas is playing and laughing, too...but in an all boy way, of course! I love to think of them in the arms of Jesus...full of love and joy, hope, peace, and comfort. Surrounded by goodness! Oh, what joy it will be when I can hold them once more and never say good-bye again!

Comments will stay opened on this and all the rest of the giveaway posts this week. We will announce the rest of the winners on Friday. Also, if you have not added your baby's name and family information to our Remembrance Page, please do so. We would love to include you on our list, and in our prayers.

Remember With Us ~ October 15th

There will not be a featured blog this week on Walking With You. Instead, we will be focusing on some activities to commemorate all families who have experienced the loss of a baby or child, as we recognize and take time time to remember on October 15th. Please click on October 15th Rememberance Page information post to join us in remembering these precious babies and families. We hope you will also add your family to the list. Also...there is a special giveaway on that page you may want to see. Have a lovely week and God bless each of you...

Remember With Us ~ October 15th (Giveaway - Winners Announced)

*Memorial Pin Giveaway has ended, but we encourage you to still add your baby's name and family information on our Remembrance Page list if you have not already done so. Continue reading for more information...

I'm a little late getting this information up and running, so hopefully everyone sees it in time.

Last year on October 15th, we honored and prayed for many families who lost a baby or child. And, I would like to do it again this year. I hope you will join us. Here is an excerpt from last year's post:

October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I have met so many beautiful families through Walking With You, this blog, and through Sufficient Grace Ministries. Your stories have touched my heart, and I want to remember each one of your precious babies. Every life is precious in the eyes of the Lord. Every life has value and purpose. While I have prayed for everyone who has crossed my path, it would be nice to have a list to pray for all in one place...with names and birth dates (and heavenly home-going dates). I thought it would be special for us to compile a list of our precious babies and post it here on October 15th. So, if you are a mother who has lost a baby/child and would like to include your family on our list, please leave your information in the comments below or email it to me at sufficientgraceministries@gmail.com. If your information is on last year's list, please note I will be including those previously listed and just adding any new names and re-posting the list.

Even if we've never met (in real life or blog land!), you are welcome to participate. We want to remember all of the precious babies and their families. On that special day, I will post the list here and pray throughout the day for each of you...as we remember together. If you would like to help us spread the word on your blog so that we could include more families, please feel free! If you would like to include your child on the October 15th memory page, please leave the following in the comments below (on this post):

Child's Name
Parents Name
Birth Date
Entered Heaven:
Any message you may wish to share...or bible verse that brings you comfort

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Giveaway is now Closed...Winners Announced in new post...You may still comment to add your family to the Remembrance Page...
And, as an added blessing, we have purchased a few beautiful Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness pins made by the talented and lovely Franchesca, to giveaway to three of you. I will be announcing the winners on Monday evening, in order to mail them on Tuesday (to insure they are received by Oct. 15th). To enter the giveaway, please leave a separate comment from your "baby name" entry and let us know if you would like to be entered to win the blue flower (for a boy), a pink flower (for a girl), or an off-white colored flower (gender neutral). Visit Franchesca's With Love site to view.

Also...if you are a grieving parent, and new to our site, please visit the Dreams of You Shop. If you would like a Dreams of You Memory Book or Comfort Bear, please email the shipping address listed on that page. We do not charge parents for our products or services. It is our desire and prayer to offer comfort and hope to every family who crosses our path.

More giveaways to come...so please stay tuned! Love and grace to all...

What the Gift of Hospitality Looks Like

Tuesday evening, I was invited to share about Sufficient Grace Ministries to a lovely group of ladies from the Napoleon Church of the Nazarene. From the moment when we walked into the doors of the building with the lighthouses on the windows, Becki and I felt loved and welcomed. It was clear these sweet sisters in Christ have been blessed with the gift of hospitality. The room was decorated with lovely fall decor. A spread of yummy Subway sandwiches, and yummy desserts was set out before us, and smiling faces were everywhere we looked.

Of course, there was a bit of history involved, as there always seems to be when I visit any of the towns in our county. Two of my favorite Kindergarten teachers, who also happened to be sisters were in the room. One sister was my Kindergarten teacher, and the other welcomed both my boys into their grade school experience. My childhood babysitter was also in attendance.



This beautiful sign, made by Kindergarten teacher number two, the very talented Teresa, just blessed my heart. How sweet is this?! It just made me feel so special, and welcome.

Teresa said, "Well, it's not exactly like having your name in lights..."

I smiled, thinking, I'd rather have my name on a pumpkin anyway! A pumpkin that someone took the time out of her day to decorate and make me feel welcome. The whole evening was just like that...little touches of grace, beauty, and kindness here and there. As I looked at the women around the room, I thought that this is some of what the Lord must have had in mind when He made women. I think He has a purpose for the way we are woven together...the way some of us have the gift of conversation, while others notice the details, still others take the time to organize, and others care about making everything aesthetically pleasing and beautiful, others think of making someone comfortable, and still others create yummy food to nourish the body.


I had a lovely chat with the woman pictured above, whose daughters had twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome and were born around the same gestational age as Faith and Grace. Her daughters are now six years old. They spent three months in the NICU after birth. The footprints of my daughters displayed on the table beside the podium where I spoke, reminded her of her own daughters' tiny footprints. My daughters never took a breath outside of my womb and will be celebrating their fourteenth birthday in heaven on November 3rd. And, still my heart was instantly knit to this mother's heart. We still shared the common bond of being mothers to twin daughters...daughters we both prayed for and love. I thought about weeping and rejoicing about (as Angie Smith so eloquently says) the "sacred dance of grief and joy".



One of the ladies was referred to as their "prayer warrior". What a compliment! And, pray she did. She opened in prayer, prayed over Sufficient Grace and prayed for me, and when a call came that someone was on their way to the hospital with pregnancy complications, we stopped and she prayed again. We laughed, we shared, we cried, we ate, we prayed. And, the bond of Christ was evidently shared amongst us. It was a beautiful blessing of an evening. And, no doubt...while we may flit and flurry through many days of our lives, riddled with our various weaknesses and imperfections, for that hour, I saw what I believe God desires for the relationships of women.



Love, compassion, grace, beauty, willing hearts, prayer warriors, friendship, encouragement, sharing of burdens, ministering to others, serving in joy, laughing with peace in our hearts, sisters in Him...




I am so thankful for this lovely group of women, and for their willing hearts to reach out to their community and shower blessings on all who cross their path. Becki and I were both so blessed and grateful for our time with you...and for your support of Sufficient Grace.

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A couple other things...

Love and Prayers to my friend, Stacy Delisle and family as they remember sweet Isaac today on his birthday! Happy heavenly birthday, sweet boy! Your life continues to touch so many others...

And...please take a few minutes to stop by and encourage the two moms featured on this week's Walking With You. Just leave them a little comment and let them know they are not alone. That would be so nice of you, and would mean so much to them.

One last thing...this weekend I am going to start announcing this month's giveaways for grieving mamas to commemorate National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness month. So, please stay tuned! Have a wonderful weekend!

Show Some Love to Michelle, Mommy to Audrey and Kimberly, Mommy to Hudson

We are again featuring two sweet mamas on this week's Walking With You. I know that it has been awhile since we began this little showing-some-love-to-a-grieving-mama-each-week-project. That's part of the reason I've been trying to double up and feature two mothers in a week! I hope you will take some time to visit both and let them know that you are praying for them. It doesn't take much time, but it sure blesses the heart of a grieving mother to know that she is not alone.

First meet Michelle, mommy to the beautiful Audrey...

Michelle's words as they appear on her sidebar:
Jamie and I lost our first baby due to an early miscarriage and our firstborn, Audrey to severe prematurity (25 weeks) and sepsis. I blog to keep record of my journey for myself, a journal of sorts. In doing so I hope that other baby loss moms or those affected by a similar loss find some encouragement and comfort that we are not alone in our pain.

Michelle has such a beautiful smile! She has started a lovely project in memory of sweet Audrey called, Audrey's Little Light. She creates custom made scrapbook candles in memory of little ones who have left this earth too soon.

Please stop by and let her know that you are praying for her this week.

You may be familiar with the heart-warming smile of sweet Kimberly and the story of her sweet Hudson. But, please stop by and show her some love and say some prayers for her this week. I am linking to a post she wrote shortly after Hudson went home to heaven in January 2009. More of her recent blog shares about life with the latest Henninger blessing, their sweet daughter. I wanted to focus on Hudson for Walking With You, so I'm directing you to a post that tells his story. Please leave your comments there.

And, here are a few words from Kimberly as written in her profile:

We are The Henninger Family! Life has been full of many different paths and adventures in the past 3 years that we have been married. This blog is composed of all of the exciting times as well as sad times we have faced and are facing. We have a beautiful little boy named Hudson Greer who was born still after 30 weeks of pregnancy. We also have a 60-lbs lap dog named Hunter who we have had for 8 years and will always be our little baby. Both of us love Hudson and Hunter so much and are so glad they are a part of our lives. In our newest chapter we gave birth to the most resent addition to our family - Heidi Jewell. She is teaching us, just like Hudson did, so much more about life than we ever knew.

Thanks again. Have a blessed week!

The Passing of Time and Some Upcoming Events...Yes, it's a Hodge Podge

October has arrived, and I realize I've been a little absent in blog land. Truth be told, I've been soaking in every minute of my oldest son's high school golf season. Yes, in the grand scheme of eternity...not the most spiritual of matters. But, the heart of a mother learns to love what her children love. Their passions become our passions. When something means the world to them, it means the world to us. While it's certainly important to keep an eternal perspective, it is also a worthy thing to soak in the time we have with our children and let them know how much they matter to us. It isn't really hard to do. I love watching my children soar with the gifts and abilities that God has given them. And, I know my time following my oldest son on the golf course is growing short, as he just finished the golf season of his junior year. I won't lie. It is one of my favorite things to do. Watching him swing that club, surrounded by the most splendid display of earth's beauty. So, forgive me if I seem a little less focused from August to October. I am soaking it in, and time with my children is fleeting.

I marvel at the way time passes. Here we are in the midst of another autumn shrouded in memories. This is the time I usually relive the last moments of my mother's life, mixed in with the memories of Faith and Grace. It is generally commemorated with sleepless nights, flashbacks, and an agony of missing as my body relives those last weeks...even while my mind resists. This year has been a little different. The flashes are there, as I walk on to the soccer field and remember "the phone call"...and other times that bring the memories back. But, the passing of time is a force of it's own to be reckoned with. This year, there are so many current good-byes looming that the past good-byes are being pushed aside to make room. They are still there, of course...just shifting. I suppose this life is a string of good-byes...with a few hellos along the way.

My mother's house is for sale/rent. The house where I...in true teenage diva form... argued with my mom, while getting ready for my first Homecoming and my last. (I will be taking pictures of my son and his girl later today, as he prepares for his next-to-last Homecoming.) Last Sunday, I had to go and get some of Mom's things out of the house, so that someone else can move in...a trip I've been putting off. It is a strange feeling...going through the personal belongings of one that you love, realizing that the things we cling to in this life, really do not matter. We are just passing through, and the only things we can take with us to heaven are the people whose lives we touch by sharing the love of Jesus. I know this may not be a popular or uplifting thought to some. But, it is true. And the tangible knowledge of this truth is really working it's way into my heart.

While we were there, I tried not to remember all the Christmas mornings we laughed together in the front room, the times I checked my reflection in the full length closet mirror before a date, laughing on the edge of my bed with my best friend Nicki, swimming in the back yard pool back when I could still swim faster than my little brothers, laughing with my own kids in the same pool. My heart aches with the memories. But, as we loaded her items into our truck, I willed my heart to be numb and shook each memory from my mind, even as I felt them squeezing my heart.

I remember the first time I walked through mom's house alone after she passed. It struck me, all the little touches of "her". A woman's house is filled with her touches....she pours her heart into making her home a lovely haven. And, her signature is all over it. I never once walked into her house, since she has gone home to heaven, and didn't for just a moment expect to see her laying on her beloved couch...followed by the heart breaking disappointment that she wasn't there, that she would never be there again. And, now...it is likely that I will never walk into that house again. It may seem silly, but sometimes when her house was still there...it was as if a piece of her was still with us. I'm still sorting through the emotion of the idea that someone else will be in my mother's house...that when we go on a bike ride and check on her lilac bush, it will no longer be her lilac bush. Every rock that she and my grandfather placed in the landscaping around her house...and the mailbox she was so proud of...no longer hers. The driveway where she swung me in the air with joy as I told her I was expecting twins. Someone else's car will be parked there. Why does it feel like I'm saying goodbye all over again?

And, why do I feel the strong sense that we are just passing through...that the things I treasure (actually there are few earthly "things" that I treasure) will someday, at best be just a faint reminder that I once walked this earth...and at worst a burden of clutter to my children who will wonder what to do with it all...and most likely a little of both? Maybe this is why I'm not inclined to be a collector of things...and now even less so.

O.K....enough of my cleansing melancholy....so sorry to have taken you all there. God is working it all out in my heart...it's just fresh right now, and working through these matters takes time. The nitty gritty stuff of life is not something we can tie into a neat bow and wrap up in a little blog post.

So...in other news...

For those that are not local, please pray for the upcoming Sufficient Grace events...

And, for those that are local, please consider attending and/or supporting this month's festivities.

October 5th ~ Speaking at Napoleon Church of the Nazarene Women's Ministry

I will be sharing our family's journey of God's sufficient grace and presenting about Sufficient Grace Ministries at the Napoleon Church of the Nazarene on Tuesday October 5, 2010 at 6:30pm. All ladies are invited. I believe there is a small entry fee (just a few dollars). Come for an evening of encouragement, food, and some fun thrown in, as well!

Fundraiser hosted by the Napoleon Church of the Nazarene Women's Ministry

The Napoleon Church of the Nazarene is hosting a fundraiser to support the Food Pantry and Sufficient Grace Ministries. On October 15th and 16th, a photographer will be doing children's photo sessions. The pictures will be antique black and white with a splash of color. Special, fun antique clothing is provided for kids up to age 16. Cost is only $10 and you get a coupon for a free 10 x 13. You may order more pictures, but you are under no obligation to do so. You may sign up with either Kelly Gerken or Teresa Brown by October 9th. Times available are 10am-8:15m both days. List several options when you sign up so that we can find a time that works for you. This sounds like a fun way to get adorable pictures of your children and support two wonderful local ministries. I hope to see you there!

Please email me if you have questions.

I will be announcing some upcoming events to commemorate Pregnancy Loss/Remembrance Month soon. Also, please take a few minutes to encourage and pray for this week's Walking With You mamas. Thank you so much for those of you who are still reading!

Love to all...

Meet Beautiful Chelle and Her Daughter April....and Show Some Love to Sweet Jennifer and Her Eli

O.K....this Walking With You is a little late, but I am featuring two sweet mama bloggers this week. Hope that makes up for it! I hope you will take a few minutes to show some love to these moms this week.

Please meet Chelle and read her beautiful, heart-wrenching, and inspiring letter to her daughter April. Since you can't comment on the letter, It would be so kind of you to click on her most recent post and let her know that you stopped by her blog, and you read about her little April. Show her some love and keep her in your prayers this week!

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You may already know Jennifer and the story of her little Eli. Will you do me a favor and read the beginning of his story and then click on Jennifer's most recent post, and let her know that you are praying for her this week, anyway...even if you already read her blog. Let her know that this week, you will take some time to remember her Eli and pray for her. It really means so much to another mother walking this path...to know that she doesn't walk alone...that she is being lifted in prayer.

Thank you so much....love to all. Stay tuned...next month, we will be planning some activities to commemorate National Pregnancy Loss and Remembrance month.