Wednesday, October 30, 2013

WWBH Prompt (Plus a brief update)

Hello, everyone. :) With tomorrow being Halloween, things are a bit touch and go over here. Not only because we had holiday plans including little Analin, but because it is the last day of our due-date month. We have dress up all day, through breakfast at day care, lunch at Kris' work and possibly trick or treating at night, depending on the rain-predicted weather. We had already gotten all of the kids' costumes, including Analin's, which is now packed up with the rest of her things.

The difficult part is the memories we won't be making that we thought we would is brought into light on a holiday, and this is the first one we've reached so far. As with everything else, however, I'm sure it won't be as difficult as we're thinking it may be.

I am ready, I think, to start up with the WWBH prompts again. This week Leanne has put it together for us, and I'm scheduled for next week, along with the choosing of the monthly ad winner. Get your writing caps on, and dive into the prompt, making sure to get it in by 8pm EST next Tuesday to be eligible. :)

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Scary movies and candy galore, entice the imagination to explore. Take a picture and five simple terms, write a story of fiction to make readers squirm.

Haha! Happy Writer Wednesday and Happy Halloween, friends. It's time for another round of the blog hop photo stories. Here are the two stories we received from last week's prompt:

No Heroes Death by Tena Carr
Window Seat by Leanne Sype

Writers inspiring writers, spurring the growth of an imaginative writing community! This is what the blog hop is really all about, my friends. So we hope you'll join us this week, and be sure to invite a friend to join in too. All are welcome. Here's a quick review of how the blog hop works:

1) Use the photo and the 5 words provided in your story
2) Keep your word count 500 words or less.
3) You have until next Tuesday to link up your post.
4) Link up with your blog hostess (Nicole, Carrie, Tena or Leanne) when you’re done via the inLinkz linky below.
5) Have fun, don’t stress, let those creative juices flow.

Here is this week's photograph (courtesy of Leanne Sype):
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Your mandatory words:
day
vowel
stool
spaceship
calm

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Kris' Speech

These were the words Kris wrote and spoke for Analin's memorial. <3 You can read more about her here.

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I want to start by thanking all of you for coming tonight. Carrie and I have been overwhelmed by all the love and support we’ve received from our families, friends and colleagues. It has been incredibly helpful to us to know that we have not been alone in our grief. We can never express our gratitude to all of you, but we will always try. 


One of the things I kept asking myself early last week was ‘Why?’. Why did this happen to us?

Why did this happen to our family? What had we done to deserve this fate? 

I know that many of you shared the same question with me. That this was so pointless - that it was so hard to understand the reason for our loss. 

I’ve come to realize that it’s really the wrong question to ask - this should not make us question and it’s not helpful for us to ask ‘why’. 

PhotoIf there’s a greater meaning with Analin’s death, I cannot see it - But what I can do, is to cherish Analin’s memory and make her mean something. 

I take great strength from the fact that Analin was with us for 38 weeks. I smile when I think about how she would get mad at Carrie (and me I suppose) when the food Carrie ate was too spicy. It was amazing to feel Carrie’s belly when Analin had hiccups.

It was incredible to see when Analin had her kick-boxing workouts. 

I will cherish forever those hard, hard hours after Analin was born when we had her in our room at the hospital. When we got to hold our baby-girl in our arms. 

As I think of all those memories, I so wish that we could have had more. Right now, that’s the hardest thing for me to accept - that those incredible memories won’t continue. It makes me so sad but I’m really grateful that since I can’t have those future memories, at least I have some. 

PhotoI’ve been thinking a lot about how you actually can have a memorial for a baby girl when you hadn’t spent all that much time with her. But the thing is - I know her. We all do. And I know she’s with us. Right here.

We know she would have been beautiful and compassionate like her mother. 

She would have been smart and sweet like her oldest brother Joshua. She would have been smiling and happy like her brother, Sebastian. 

And maybe she would have had her father’s sense of humor - which of course would have driven her mother crazy. 

We know she would have been all those things - and of course, she would have been completely her own - our unique, amazing, beautiful girl.

So what do we do now? Well, we continue. Analin and her story is now part of our family and we will always keep her memory with us. We will cherish life and we will keep sharing our love with our family and our friends. We will try to be the best people we can be. Now this is just part of us and our lives.

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I want to share with you just how amazing Carrie and our boys have been to me and to our family in the last week. Our boys are our super-heroes. 

Carrie, it sucks so much that we have to go through this, but I’m so incredibly grateful that since I have to go through it, that I go through it with you. You’ve been amazing for me, for our boys and you give us so much strength. Not an hour passes without me thanking the stars for you.

I want to finish by saying thank you again to our family, our friends and also to Kristin and everyone from Tiny Purpose. We will always be grateful for the support you have given us in these difficult days.

And of course a huge thank you to all for being with us tonight - we appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.

We will continue to need to lean on you. But you can lean on us too.

Tonight, we want to start a tradition that we intend to keep every year on Analin’s birthday - and that is to release sky lanterns. So with your help, we’d like to begin.




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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

I don't know how to title this post ...

There really is no easy way to put this, so I'll use the main thing that has gotten me through these last few weeks - the Band-aid Method.

On October 6, Analin was stillborn. She was born at 2:25 in the morning weighing 6lbs 8oz, 20 inches long and she never opened her eyes or took a breath.

We had gone into the hospital on the 5th because I hadn't felt her moving. We had thought it was birth preparation and our visit was just a precaution. However, the nurse couldn't find a heartbeat, and the ultrasound confirmed there was none.

As of now, we don't have a reason for her loss. On initial exam, there was nothing obvious. We're not sure if the cord and placenta were sent to pathology because I had a different OB deliver me, and my OB hadn't had a chance to ask before my post-partum appointment with her. It doesn't matter much right now, except that my blood clotting proteins may have played a role, and that's important for any future pregnancy we might have.

PhotoOn Monday the 15th, we had a beautiful ceremony for Analin in our front yard. Everyone who was able to attend had a small candle, each tied carefully with a power-word; strength, courage, memory, love, etc. Kristoffer gave a beautiful speech and chose an amazing play list. Then we lit up some sky lanterns. Joshua (4), who had been having a rough time, and I poured all of our sadness into the lanterns. We watched them rise straight up into the cold, windless dusk, and be carried away on higher winds.


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We're still struggling a little over here, but have taken on the decision to move past this. The firsts - the first things to do without her - are the most difficult, hence the band-aid method. And then there's the belief that we cannot allow this grief to take over our lives, to poison our hearts against the other babies being born now (have I mentioned before that everyone we knew who was pregnant was also due in October?), to stop us from enjoying the two children still with us, or to come between us as husband and wife. So we move on, and we manage, but we don't forget. <3

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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

WWBH Prompt Post and Winner!!

Happy October!! Are you excited for Halloween, or do you have Holiday Confusion Syndrome inspired by the plethora of holiday decor available in stores? ;-)

Good thing there's no confusion to be had here. This month's Ad Winner is --


Congratulations, Scott. :-) Thank you and everyone for being so loyal to our weekly hop and sharing all your fantastic stories. Here's to a lot more to come.

With that, let's move on to our new prompt with a review of the rules:

 1) Use the photo and the 5 words provided in your story
 2) Keep your word count 500 words or less. 3) You have until next Tuesday to link up your post. 4) Link up with your blog hostess (NicoleCarrie, Tena or Leanne) when you’re done via the inLinkz linky below. 5) Have fun, don’t stress, let those creative juices flow.



Photo courtesy of Flikr Commons:



5 Must-Use Words:

System

Quarry

Ant

Bible

Artillery

And where to link up: