Mother's Day

This year marks my first "official" Mother's Day, but in my heart, I became a mother back in 2008 when we got that first positive pregnancy test. We lost that baby at six weeks along (though we didn't find out for another few weeks). That baby would have been due at the end of April 2009 and would have just turned four. We got pregnant again in the fall of 2009 only to find out that he or she had also not developed. That baby would have been due in early May 2010.

Having Hannah has been amazing, wonderful, beautiful and miraculous but just because God answered our prayer and allowed us to have this incredible, precious little girl has not diminished the love and longing I still have for those little ones that I never got to hold. This year, the due dates came and they were just as heavy on my heart and mind as they have been every other year.

There was a post from a local woman who makes jewelry (she calls them sweet peas) and she was offering a Mother's Day special to create a piece and meet up in person to save on shipping. I checked out her website and noticed a sweet section where she was beginning to make pieces to memorialize "lost peas" for women who have lost their babies.

So this is my Mother's Day gift to myself. It's adorable and has so much meaning to me -- the little pearls (or "peas") are the colors of the birthstones of April and May and those pearls are smaller. And then the larger pearl is Hannah's birthstone.

If any of you are interested in ordering, you can check out her website: mamabssweetpeas.com or like her on Facebook: facebook.com/mamabssweetpeas

Sign up for her newsletter and you'll get a coupon code for a discount on your first order. She usually ships her orders, so you can get your own "sweet peas" even if you're not local.

And for all of you mommas who have lost babies or who are still praying for God to answer your prayer for a baby, know you are being prayed for this Mother's Day.

If you are reading this and know someone who has lost a baby (or a child), please call her or send her a card on Sunday. Validate the life she carried but lost. One of my sweet friends has sent me a Mother's Day card every year and that has meant so much to me -- to know that someone else remembered my babies and remembered me as I grieved not having them here.

So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. -1 Thessalonians 5:11