Ever After Ezra

Tomorrow join Full Cycle Loss Support Services at Community Roots Collective from 7-9 for our May Loss Group meetup.

We meet every first Monday of the month. Whether your loss was years ago or days ago, sharing your experience, strength and hope can help another mama who may just be starting out on her journey through childloss.

If you have questions feel free to reach out at (727)281-1656

Full Cycle Loss Support returns this Monday, January 8th from 7-9 pm

We can’t wait to see everyone and are holding space for any new faces that maybe in need of a safe space 💖

A candle Lit for every baby gone too soon. It’s not too late to join in the International Wave of Light! Light a candle for a loved one lost or in honor of a friend or family member’s loss.

If you light a candle for Ezra please post a picture!!!

Join us in walking in honor of your Angel. Meet the Community Roots Collective Crew and enjoy a beautiful evening to bring love and awareness to Pregnancy & Infant Loss and to honor all of the tiny souls gone too soon. Register below on eventbrite!

5th Annual Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Family Walk https://bit.ly/3aCm2at

Molly Bears - Order Your Molly Bear Molly Bears is a non-profit organization that creates weighted teddy bears for families coping with infant loss. MollyBears.org is also place for support for families that have suffered a death of an infant with useful resources and programs.

Tomorrow evening, 7-9pm at Community Roots Collective we will be gathering for our monthly Full Cycle Loss Support Services

Child Loss is one of the most painful things a person can experience. One of the best ways to encourage healing is to talk about your loss. Join us as we navigate the grief experience and share our stories.

Tomorrow is the first day of Bereaved Parents Awareness Month, we asked that the friends and family of bereaved parents to reach out and let them know that you’re thinking of them.
Everyday is a struggle for us (bereaved parents) and a hug, call, gift and/or remembering our children with us can make our day.

July is Bereaved Parents Awareness Month, a month to raise awareness and support parents who lost a child(ren) at any age.

Forever longing for our sweet Ezra ♥️

If you’re local to Tampa, FL…join us Monday June 6th for this months meeting of Full Cycle Loss Support group

Wishing a gentle Mothers Day to those with empty arms.

Tonight from 7-9 at Community Roots Collective
Full Cycle Loss Support group

Your baby will die & you will pour your morning coffee. She will draw her last breath & you will go on to make dinner. You child will cease to breathe & you will still lace up your shoes & go our for an evening walk.
You will wake up & your beloved will no longer be in the house. The familiar sounds & smells, medicines, equipment & special foods will disappear almost alongside of your loved one. All of this will happen & you will still drive your car. You will still attend parent-teacher conferences, put on makeup, text your friends. You will laugh at dinner, have great s*x, read incredible books, visit new places, weep openly in the grocery store, sing loudly, breathe deeply, & eagerly anticipate the future while also dreading every second of it.
Your child will die & so will friendships. Other tragedies will still occur. You will quickly recognize that your heart is not immune to the despair of the very nuanced & trivial world you now have to live in. You will be devastated & betrayed & lied to & left out just as anyone else is. This will feel unjust. It will feel like you should be exempt from those cruel & malicious emotions because you’ve endured the worst already. But it will happen. And then again & again.
Your baby will die & you will still have to feed the dog, clean the cat litter box, help with homework. You will wonder almost every time you do it how you still are & then you may laugh out loud while no one is listening with a kind of madness, realizing that this is, in fact, your reality. It is.
And I’m so sorry for it. But, my friend...your child will die & you will survive. You WILL live. It will be awful & horrifying & tortuous at times but also, heroic.
Like- so. damn. brave.
You will be a beacon & an inspiration & a confidant; none of which you asked for & all of which you’d trade for a single second more with your beautiful child. But you will also settle into each of those traits as time marches on.
It may not be now, but one day you will look around & marvel at all of the every day, ordinary tasks you accomplished in the aftermath of the tragedy that was your child’s departure.

You will marvel at your own strength & grit & grace. And then...you will pay another bill, take a shower, visit a doctor, watch a basketball game & realize over & over & over again just how beautifully your own body & mind has carried you. Without a conscious thought, you have woken up every day & you have continued to live. To show up. To engage. Even when you thought you couldn’t or just knew you’d never be able to do it- you have.

You’re a warrior. You are not alone. And I see you. 💛
——-

I originally wrote this in september of 2020 on Instagram {} and it was my most shared work. Feel free to share it here, in honor of international bereaved Mother’s Day. It’s always an honor to connect with other moms who, too, know this pain.

To the person I was before my babies died,

You will not believe where life has taken us and what life has taken from us.  If I stood in front of you today and told you our story of loss and grief, you would probably stare back at me in disbelief. You might not think it possible for us to have endured all that we have endured.  But, we have and we have survived.

I know you have always envisioned having a family.  I know you imagine it will be very easy to become a mother.  You have very specific guidelines for how it will look to build your family.  Well, you are in for a shock because it is going to be much more difficult than you could ever imagine.

You will experience loss and heartbreak and you will experience them over and over again.  You will wonder why this is so hard for you when it seems to be so easy for others.  You will question whether a living child will ever be your reality.

I know you have a rich imagination and you can get carried away when you daydream.  Would it break your heart to know that there will be days where you will not allow yourself to dream because it will cause you incredible pain?  

I’m also sad to say that you might not even recognize the dreams of your future self.  I imagine you would wonder if you can still call them dreams when they are grounded by so many limitations.

You see yourself as strong, but you have no idea how strong you really are.  The magnitude of your strength will not be demonstrated until you feel completely broken.  

I know that you strive for happiness and you are afraid of sadness.  You are afraid to acknowledge pain because you are worried it will chase away your joy.  

You’ll get over that.  

You are much wiser now and you understand that there is space for all of your emotions to coexist.  You will learn to honor your feelings and in turn, you will learn how to better honor yourself.

You are incredible and I hope one day you will love yourself the way that I do.  You’ve come so far and we have so much further left to go.

Love, Me

Although social media can be wrought with triggers, many of us choose to grieve online. Participating in the online loss community is an effective way to find support and it can be done from the comfort of your couch. There are online magazines, charitable foundations, and support groups for those experiencing any variety of pregnancy loss, infant loss, child loss, or infertility. Having a network of resources available to access from anywhere and at anytime is invaluable.

The online loss community also makes it easy for us to share our stories. Some of us have blogs where we write about our experiences or Etsy shops where we share our creative healing. I have become linked to hundreds of other loss parents who use their social media accounts to share meaningful quotes, helpful articles, or photos of their beautiful babies. While we are still making ourselves vulnerable, in many ways it’s easier to put ourselves out there when we can do so with the “push of a button.”

Which brings me to my next point. If someone you love has lost a child and they share something on social media pertaining to their grief, it is so easy to show your support.

Just go ahead and “like” it.

That’s all you have to do. By hitting like, or leaving a comment, or sharing their posts about loss you are saying “I have seen this and it matters to me because YOU matter to me.”

Because here’s the thing: we know you’re on social media. We see your activity and we notice when you like our non-grief related posts (you know, the ones where we’re happy) and you skip over the ones that pertain to our loss. Sometimes, when we see that, it hurts. It feels like that part of us is not worth a “push of a button” and we know that’s not true.

So, just go ahead and “like” it. Share it, tweet it, double tap it. Whatever your platform, it’s such an easy way to show your support to the ones you love and the community who loves them.

Happy Easter to all of the loss families out there celebrating Easter missing their babies in heaven.

If you’d like a name graphic in honor of Say Their Name Day send them a Dm

What is Say Their Name Day?

Say Their Name Day on March 25th is a special day to raise awareness and break the stigma of pregnancy, infant and child loss.

Ezra Kobe Cobb
08/20/2020

Will you say your babies names with us today?

It’s a club no one wants to join. We are here for you. We understand. We have survived the worst days of our lives, many times over.

Order your Molly Bear today! Weighted to the same weight as your Angel baby. We love our Ezra bear, he sleeps with us every night 🤍

Our order form is now open. We will accept 150 new orders.

https://mollybears.org/order

I’m definitely in the in between. Goo, like a butterfly in it’s chrysalis. I’m not who I was 18 months ago and I don’t know who I’ll be 18 months from now. All I know is whoever I used to be is long gone. I am working to peel back the layers until I find who I am now. Grief and loss have a funny way of knocking you down, requiring you to rebuild. But the pieces never fit quite right, and something new and beautiful is born

I cried today, they didn't know, they couldn't even tell.
I cried yesterday, wholeheartedly, But I also hid that well.
Infact I cry every day, as I feel my heart is torn in two.
There is no way, to heal this broken heart, no special stitching or no special glue.
I have lost, and I have suffered before, pain well do i know. But I never knew true heartache, Until they told me you had to go.
That day, I physically felt my heart ripping, I still, Find it hard to breathe. Living in this world feels sickening, since you had to leave. I get up every morning, And for you my sweet child I try, To see the good in this world, Rather than hideaway and cry. I just always feel angry, confused, and all so numb, Since the day I feel, that i failed you, as your mum.
This pain is all so lonely, No one truly understands, How it feels to birth an angel, With cold and tiny fragile hands.
I Felt you move inside me, I heard your heart beat was strong. I couldn't believe them when they said, that there was something wrong.
I Begged for a way to save you, I would have given anything I swear.
To have you here in my arms, Without all of this despair.
Life keeps teaching me lessons, I have no desire to learn.
I need you here in my arms, instead of on the shelf in your urn....
-Karters Mommy

🙏🏼

Please ask if someone has named their baby and if they answer yes, use that name in conversation.

Babies that have died aren't just ‘a miscarriage’. They aren't just ‘a stillborn’. They arent just ‘an ectopic’....they aren’t the loss, they are longed for children.

If you named your child (children) that ran on ahead feel free to add their names in the comments ❤️❤️