Dear Friends,
As many of you know, in June, our daughter, Abigail Eve, was diagnosed with anencephaly following our 20 week anatomy ultrasound. The prognosis we were given was that if she survived to full term, her life expectancy would be minutes to hours at most.
We chose to carry her because of our faith in God and in celebration of her life. God’s faithfulness and kindness to us were overwhelming during the next two months. He connected us to others with similar experiences, raised up an army of prayer warriors, allowed us to locate a local photographer willing to document our daughter’s life, and surrounded us with the truth of his Word.
On August 4th, when my water broke at 28 weeks, we knew it was time for Abigail to be born. My own doctor was on-call all weekend and my nurse was the sister of a friend with a similar experience Abigail arrived in heaven just before we held her in our arms on August 5th. We were in awe of God’s fingerprints on every detail of her delivery.
We have known days of grief and delighted in the opportunity we had to carry and care for Abigail.
Since her delivery, we’ve desired to use Abigail’s life and story to bring glory to God and to support others who come to this same place. God has put an opportunity before me in order to accomplish both.
I recently received a “hope box” through an organization called Hope Mommies. This organization points bereaved parents to God and the truth of His Word. It has an online support community through a blog and Facebook groups. The other part of their ministry is sending “hope boxes” to hospitals for parents experiencing loss. All four of our local hospitals (Doctors, Memorial, Kaiser, and Emmanuel) are excited to receive these boxes in order to give to their grieving patients. Also, Allen’s Mortuary is excited to pass them out as well. Allen’s provides funeral and crematory services free of charge for the death of a child. They said on average this occurs 5-10 times a month.
The boxes cost $45 and contain the following items:
Bible, Journal, Questions about Heaven booklet, Anchored Bible Study (specific for grieving the loss of a child), Scripture bookmarks, Hope Mommies Organization information, Bracelet, handprint and footprint cards, candle, tea, bath bomb, lipbalm, and lotion (These items are placed in a decorative photo box.)
Since five places are enthusiastic to bless families with these boxes, my goal is to raise money for 50 boxes. Once the funds are raised (I don't know how long this will take), Hope Mommies will ship the items to me and I will gather local moms who have experienced the death of a child. We will assemble these boxes together and distribute them. I am asking you first to pray about the ministry and impact these boxes will have on those who are hurting. Second, if you would like to financially support this ministry, you can do so here:
https://hopemommies.org/box-ga.../give-to-a-gatheringPlease make sure to choose
“Hosted by: Sarah Maze”
in the first box. All financial contributions are tax deductable. Thank you for your prayers! I am excited to be a part of this ministry and look forward to what God has planned through it. You are welcome to invite others to view this event who may be interested in praying and/or supporting this ministry.
Sarah
