2014 Walk News, Forever Footprints News, Fundraising, OC Walk to Remember, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness
Come See us at Bob’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream at the Orange County Market Place! We’ll be there selling hand-dipped ice cream bars for $3 each. The great news is that OC Walk to Remember keeps the entire purchase price! Please share with your friends!
DATES: Saturday, April 12th and Sunday, April 13th
TIMES: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm WHERE: Bob’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream on the East side of the Swap Meet, Row E, Aisle 3. Look for Elvis on the building.
Can’t wait to see everyone!
2014 Walk News, Forever Footprints News, Fundraising, OC Walk to Remember, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness
October 5, 2013-Isabel’s 2nd year volunteering at the OC Walk to Remember event
Isabel Royal, 12 years old from San Clemente takes action and brings positive change in her community. Not only does she enjoy cooking, surfing,tubing and swimming, volunteering is what she likes to do. For the past 2 years, Isabel has been a volunteer at OC Walk to Remember’s yearly event in October.
On September 10, 2012 her friends Jennifer and Jeffrey Watanabe lost their baby, Luke due to a cord accident. To support them, Isabel and her family attended their 1st OC Walk to Remember event and walked to honor Luke. Isabel was eager to help and handed out water bottles. The second year, she became more involved and participated at the temporary tattoo booth. “It’s a fun and worthy cause. My family and I try to help them out as much as possible. I wanted to see how I could help out, so my idea was to go on the website. I saw that you could volunteer, so I did.”
Team name: Luke’s Skywalkers
At the temporary tattoo booth, there were suggested donations of $1, but some people donated more, it was a fun activity for kids and their families. Isabel also had a great time meeting new people and hearing their stories. “I liked when they handed out the white roses because it showed a lot of support for families, and I enjoyed seeing them smile.”
Volunteering has impacted Isabel’s life in such a positive way. In order to have a Bat Mitzvah, one of the requirements is to complete a final project. She put together a board about this organization, displayed it for others to see, and spoke about her experience at OC Walk to Remember. “I just like helping people, I raised $35 for OC Walk to Remember. I can give back to the community and show that I can help out in some way. Even though I am young, I can do more than what I thought I could do before. You don’t want to forget about their child; make more memories.”
She’s such an inspiration. Today, Isabel celebrates her Bat Mitzvah! Congratulations!! Thank you so much Isabel for making a big difference in the community!
Isabel’s Family: Parents Ken, Dawn, and brother Alex
2014 Walk News, Forever Footprints Events, Forever Footprints News, Fundraising, OC Walk to Remember, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness, Support Resources
Parent Stories, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness, Support Resources
Late at night, I came across this picture on Instagram and thought it resembled how I’ve been feeling this past year. It’s been 5 1/2 years since I last held my only son, Kadan and told him how much I loved him. Every year, I have different emotions. The 1st year was complete chaos, nothing made any sense. I would just stay in bed all day and cry. To vent, I wrote a 7 page letter to my friends expressing my feelings, attended therapy and support groups to keep myself together. That 1st year, I will never forget. The 2nd year, I wasn’t in denial anymore and became bitter and angry because reality set in that I’m living here on earth without my son. I basically “let myself go” and ate everything in sight. I was just physically and emotionally exhausted. The 3rd year, I said to myself, “How did I survive all those years?” I was adjusting to living as a “new” Katelyn. The 4th year, I had a sense of peace and found myself crying less and started listening to my gut. My best advice is to listen to your gut. I don’t push myself too much. I still find it really difficult to attend kids birthday parties and baby showers, so if I’m not in the mood, I just don’t go. Trust me, it’s okay to let yourself feel a certain way, such as bitterness or sadness at that time. Take your time, and do what you feel is best for you. But, if a mom has had a baby loss in the past, without a doubt I’m totally on board and happy to celebrate their child than someone who hasn’t gone through a loss. Now, I am just so cautious of my emotions and tend to always ask, “Who’s babies are going to be there?” For instance, I attended my best friend’s New Year’s party, but left before those with babies had arrived. To be “happy” and celebrate the new year is still such a struggle. I’m upfront with my best friend’s and thankful they understand me without asking questions.
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Forever Footprints News, Journey to Remember and Paloma Comfort Care, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness, Support Resources
Join us for an educational conference for health professionals working in the Neonatal ICU, Perinatal Care and Pediatrics.
Attendees will learn more about the importance of communicating and collaborating as a team when working with families experiencing a loss of a pregnancy, baby or child.
Topics include:
- Communications
- Taking the collaborative approach
- Community resources
- Music Therapy
- Self Care
- Emotional outcomes of loss
- A panel discussion with a patient family
This conference is open to physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, social workers, case managers, occupational therapists, physical therapists, child life specialists and chaplains.
- DATE: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014
- TIME: Registration from 7 to 7:45 a.m., conference from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- LOCATION: UC Irvine Medical Center, Building 53 Main Auditorium 101 The City Drive South, Orange, CA 92868
- PARKING: Parking is included in the registration fee for non-UC Irvine employees. UC Irvine employees may use their regular parking permits. Non-UC Irvine employees will receive parking information two weeks prior to the conference.
- The conference includes 7 hours of CEU and lunch.
- For more information, contact Massiel Luizaga at 714-456-3935 or mluizaga@uci.edu.
*Click here to fill out the Registration Form for 2014 Palliative Care Conference
Parent Stories, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness, Support Resources
This holiday season I wanted to do something special for my little girl. I wanted to remember her in a unique way. I have done many things, including dedicating a little tree just to her, hanging her stocking up next to Nick, George, and mine, along with my newest way, creating wish ball ornaments.
I read the idea of making an ornament like this in Techniques of Grief Therapy, by Robert A. Neimeyer. Then I decided I wanted to make my own so I Googled it and couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I did however, find a wonderful example of a wish ball Christmas ornament so I decided to make my own based off of a Christmas wedding party idea I found.
Each year I have decided to make one of these wish balls for my wishes I hold for Nora (I included Nick’s wishes in the ball too). I wrote not only wishes but messages I want to share with her but can’t as she is no longer with us. Message that include:
“I want you to know I love you forever and always will.” and “Daddy wishes he could hold you.” Things like that and then I create this cool wish ball pictured above.
If you would like to know how to make one then just follow this 5 step tutorial. Let me know what you think and if you make your own send me a picture of it on Instagram, just tag me @Stillbreathinglindsey
Okay here is the directions. Enjoy!
Things to note: I used card stock to print out my wishes and messages to Nora on. I also included other sayings like her name and the current year. Oh, and it works best to get larger bulbs along with using a screw driver or pencil to help push the wishes into place once you get them into the ball. Finally, you could use colored paper along with adding tinsel, glitter, or other fun stuff, to the wish ball, but I like the clean look above. Your choice.
Good luck and may your wishes for your child too soon be captured in this memory wish ball each year.
