Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Getting Started

Hey everyone!

I'm so excited to start this ministry. This is something that has been on my heart since November of 2008, and I'm finally pushing myself to just do it.

In November of 2008, I miscarried my first pregnancy. If you'd like to read more about it, please go to my personal blog, and read my miscarriage posts. I may post more about on here later, but for now, you can read my story there.

When I first found out I was pregnant, a family member began crocheting me a baby blanket. It was gender neutral and oh so snuggly soft. When I found out I had miscarried, she stopped crocheting it and just bound it off, then gave it to me.

It was perfect. It was soft and squishy. It was a blanket unfinished, which represented a life unfinished. It has became one of my most treasured items.

That's what I want to do here. I want to minister to families who have had a miscarriage, or suffered the death of a baby while pregnant. Sadly, I know several women who fit this niche, and I know there are thousands more out there. I want to give them a blanket, an "unfinished blanket", to represent their babies sweet lives.

Each blanket will have rows that represent the weeks of their little ones lives. Our blankets will start out with a specified amount of rows (20) and then will have an additional row for every week that you carried your baby. If you had a miscarriage at eight weeks, like me, then your blanket will be 28 rows long. If you had a baby born sleeping at 34 weeks, then your blanket will be 54 weeks. Each row signifies those memories you have of your sweet babe.

So, how can you help?

First, be in prayer for this ministry. Especially as I go through the organizational stages.

Second, If you can knit or crochet, please contact me! I would love to have a small base of crafters willing to help.

Third, You can nominate someone to receive a blanket. I'm starting out with 10 families to minister to, and my goal is to get them their blankets by April. Please email me if you have a family you would like to receive a blanket (or, if you would like to receive a blanket yourself).

I covet your prayers, and your support. Please keep an eye on us as we get this ministry started!

Any suggestions, or comments, are always appreciated!

2 comments:

  1. You are so wonderful to do this.

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  2. What a wonderful idea! Oddly enough I had a similar thing happen to me, only I was the one crocheting. As soon as I found out I was expecting I started a blanket and when I miscarried I couldnt stand to touch it again so I just bound of the row I was on. It was such a comfort to me those first hard months. I carried it with me when ever I was feeling down. I think I might like to help you with this, but let me pray about it. I will leave my email address and you can get ahold of me that way. I have a 4 month old here at home along with a 7 year old and we just took over our church's youth group. I dont want to commit myself to too much, but this is right up my alley.

    misthang1023 at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! Please, tell us how we can pray for you today! Also, feel free to comment to nominate someone to receive a blanket! Please be sure to leave your email address so we have a way of contacting you!