Rainbow Baby and Giving Back in Honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month
There are parts of grief you never imagine will become part of something beautiful.
After my own pregnancy loss, I could not have pictured this moment: my rainbow baby beside me, watching and helping as we gave back to other families facing the kind of heartbreak that changes everything. Having Cora with me at both events is something I will hold onto forever. She was there in the middle of it all, a living reminder of hope, love, and the babies who remain part of our families even when they are not in our arms.
Because of everyone who supported THREADed Together, we were able to donate $2,000 to Griffin Cares Foundation in honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.
That sentence still catches in my throat.
Not because of the number alone, though $2,000 is a meaningful gift. It catches because of what it represents: people showing up, choosing care, making space for loss, and helping turn one very lonely part of my story into something that could support someone else.
Pregnancy and infant loss can feel painfully lonely
Pregnancy loss can make the world feel split in two.
There is the world everyone else seems to be living in, moving forward with normal days, normal plans, normal conversations. Then there is the world of the person carrying loss, where dates, memories, sonograms, due dates, hospital rooms, silence, and small reminders can feel impossibly heavy.
For many families, pregnancy and infant loss is also a grief that does not always have an obvious place to go. There may not be enough rituals. There may not be enough words. There may not be enough people who know how to sit with the pain without trying to fix it.
That kind of grief can feel isolating, even when a person is surrounded by love.
I know that loneliness. I know what it is like to carry a story that feels tender, complicated, and hard to explain. I know how strange it can feel to keep living while holding love for a baby who is not here in the way you dreamed.
That is part of why this donation means so much to me. It was never only about hosting an event or raising money. It was about creating a moment where loss could be acknowledged with tenderness. It was about saying that these babies matter. These families matter. These stories matter.
And for me, it was about bringing a part of my own story into the light in a way that felt healing.
Why Griffin Cares Foundation matters
Griffin Cares Foundation was created by Pamela and her husband, Paul, in memory of their son, Griffin.
Their mission is deeply meaningful: to give families free support and a place to feel understood when their world has been turned upside down. That kind of support matters more than words can fully explain.
When a family experiences pregnancy or infant loss, practical support and emotional support both matter. People need space to grieve honestly. They need to hear that their baby will not be forgotten. They need to feel less alone in moments that can feel unbearable.
Griffin Cares Foundation offers that kind of care with compassion at the center.
There is something powerful about a foundation born from love for a child. Pamela and Paul have taken Griffin’s memory and allowed it to become a source of comfort for other families. That does not erase the loss. Nothing does. But it creates a way for love to keep moving.
That is what stayed with me most.
Grief does not disappear because we do something meaningful with it. But meaning can give grief somewhere gentle to land. It can create connection where there was once isolation. It can help a family feel seen on a day when they might otherwise feel invisible.
THREADed Together was honored to support that mission.
THREADed Together became a place to remember
At THREADed Together, we made heart wands for Griffin Cares Foundation’s Remembrance Day. The act was simple, but it held so much feeling.
There is something about making with your hands that can soften a hard story.
The materials were small. The gestures were quiet. A heart. A ribbon. A wand. A symbol of love for babies who will always be part of their families.
Those heart wands were not just crafts. They were offerings. They were visible reminders that remembrance can be tender, communal, and full of care.
For anyone who has attended handmade gatherings, embroidery events, infertility, community building, Bergen County NJ connections, or intimate workshops centered on meaning, you know how powerful a shared table can become. People may arrive as strangers, but the act of making gives everyone a way to be present without needing perfect words.
That matters during grief.
Sometimes words are too much. Sometimes they are not enough. Making something by hand creates a different kind of language. It says:
I remember.
I care.
I am here.
Your baby matters.
Your family is not alone.
THREADed Together has always carried a sense of connection for me, but this event felt especially close to my heart. It brought together creativity, remembrance, motherhood, loss, and hope in a way I will never forget.
Having Cora there changed everything for me
There are moments as a parent that feel almost impossible to explain because they hold two truths at once.
Having Cora there with me was one of those moments.
She is my rainbow baby. She is joy and chaos and sweetness and life. She is also part of a story that includes loss. Not because her life replaces that loss, but because love is wide enough to hold both.
Watching her beside me as we gave back to families facing pregnancy and infant loss felt deeply emotional. I kept thinking about the version of myself who was grieving, the version who could not see this part yet. I wish I could have reached back and told her that one day, she would stand in a room filled with care. One day, her story would help create support for others. One day, her daughter would be beside her.
That does not make the loss less real. It does not turn grief into something simple. But it does remind me that healing can arrive in ways we never could have imagined.
Cora’s presence at both events is something I will hold close forever.
She may not understand all of it now. She may not know what it meant for me to have her there. But I do. I know what it meant to look over and see her in a space shaped by remembrance, hope, and generosity.
She was not just attending an event with me. She was part of a living circle of love.
The donation was possible because people showed up
The $2,000 donation to Griffin Cares Foundation happened because people chose to support THREADed Together.
Every person who attended, shared, encouraged, contributed, or simply cared became part of this gift. That support matters.
Community is often built through small acts that add up:
Signing up for an event.
Bringing a friend.
Making something by hand.
Asking about the mission behind the gathering.
Sharing a story.
Donating what you can.
Showing up even when the topic is tender.
Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month asks us to make space for grief that is often held quietly. It invites remembrance. It invites compassion. It invites us to say the names, honor the babies, and support the families who carry them in their hearts.
This donation became one way to do that.
It was not abstract. It was not distant. It went to a foundation created in memory of Griffin, led by parents who understand the depth of this kind of loss and who are helping other families feel less alone.
That kind of giving feels personal because it is personal.
It is personal for Pamela and Paul. It is personal for every family Griffin Cares supports. It is personal for me. It is personal for anyone who has loved a baby they did not get to keep.
Remembrance Day was full of love
We attended Griffin Cares Foundation’s Remembrance Day that Saturday, and it was filled with so much love for babies who will always be part of their families.
That is what I kept coming back to: always part of their families.
Pregnancy and infant loss can make people unsure of what to say. Some worry that bringing up a baby will cause pain. But for many grieving parents, the greater pain is silence. Remembrance can be a gift. A name spoken with care can feel like a hand reaching through the loneliness.
The heart wands we made at THREADed Together became part of that day. Seeing them there carried a quiet kind of meaning. They were made with love before the event, then held in a space of remembrance with families who understand.
There was grief, of course. There always is. But there was also connection. There was tenderness. There was the feeling that no one had to explain why the day mattered.
That is rare. That is sacred.
It reminded me why community care matters so much. A remembrance event cannot take away the ache of loss, but it can create a space where no one has to carry it alone for a little while.
Making meaning from a lonely part of my story
When I think back to my own pregnancy loss, one of the hardest parts was how lonely it felt.
Loss can make you feel like you are living behind glass. People may love you deeply, but they may not know what to do. They may not know how to ask. They may not understand that grief can return in waves, long after the world expects you to be okay.
For a long time, that part of my story felt like something I carried quietly.
Being able to do something meaningful with it now feels profound.
Not every story needs to become public. Not every grief needs to become a mission. Everyone deserves to move through loss in the way that feels right for them. For me, this moment with THREADed Together, Griffin Cares Foundation, and Cora beside me felt like a healing step I never would have known to hope for.
It gave shape to something that once felt shapeless.
It allowed me to honor my own loss while supporting others in theirs. It gave me a way to say, with my actions, that families deserve compassion during pregnancy and infant loss. It let me stand in the complicated beauty of motherhood after loss, with my rainbow baby next to me.
That is a gift I will never take lightly.
And as THREADed Together continues to grow through creative gatherings, including ridgewood, NJ, embroidery workshops, NYC, NY, Rockland County, NY, Westchester, NY connections, and beyond, I hope we keep finding ways to use our hands and hearts for good.
Thank you for helping love move forward
To everyone who supported THREADed Together, thank you.
Thank you for helping us donate $2,000 to Griffin Cares Foundation. Thank you for helping honor Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month with care. Thank you for making heart wands, showing up, speaking gently, and making room for remembrance.
Thank you for helping me do something meaningful with a part of my story that once felt so lonely.
Most of all, thank you for helping create more support for families who are walking through pregnancy and infant loss. No one should have to feel unseen in that kind of grief. No one should have to wonder if their baby mattered.
They did.
They do.
They always will.
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