Bereavement Boxes- Finished & Delivered!

Last night we went to Good Samaritan hospital to drop off all of the Bereavement Boxes that we have been collecting for, for the past few months. It's always weird to even drive past the exit of the hospital but to go there was a little emotional as well. Having lived there for four days there are reminders of our time there in many places. Walking in we passed a place outside where I remember sitting with Adam and holding Timmy's blanket, wondering what was going to happen over the next few hours on that Friday. While walking upstairs to help drop off the boxes, we passed the maternity doors where we entered before we had Timmy and when we thought that everything might be okay. It's so weird to be back in place like that where your whole life changed in just such a short amount of time. Honestly though I was pretty proud of the way that Adam and I handled it all. It was definitely a good visit to the hospital, instead of one that could have been pretty sad.

My contact to drop off the boxes was named Melissa. She met us in the lobby and helped us unload our first part of the boxes. While we were in our office, she asked us a few questions about our project and why we were doing it. To best explain it, when you're expecting a baby, you make plans. Your heart prepares to hold your baby, you dream about what it will be like to snuggle them, what they will look, how your other child will interact with them, and all of the fun family times that you'll have watching your child grow up. When your world comes crashing down four days later and you go home with no baby, no future for it, and you have to face a finished nursery with all of your newborn baby gear sitting around the house, just waiting for a baby that you don't have anymore...it's not a pleasant feeling. Quite truthfully I don't know and can't imagine a worse feeling in the world. All that we were left with of Timmy was a box. Inside were his hand prints and foot prints, a bear, and the blanket that he'd been laying on while in the hospital. I still have it in a bag at home. In a zip lock bag. Trying to hold in the last bit of him on that that actually still smells like him. I don't know how long that will last but I hang onto it and get it out when I need to. So when Melissa asked me why we'd decided to do this, I tried to explain that when all you have is a box to take home with you, we wanted to help to make those boxes as amazing as we could. We wanted people to have as many ways as possible to take home a remembrance of the child that could never come home with them. Below are some pictures of how we put everything together.

In each box is an angel bear. We got one of these from the hospital and it now sits at home in Timmy's crib. One day it will be Madelyn's when she's ready for it but it would be nice for parents to have and keep as well.

Thank you to my friend Marie for the gorgeous pictures of the Forget Me Not Flowers for each box. We have our picture from her in a special place at home. It's a nice way to have a remembrance gift out that you can see each day.

On the back of each box, on the inside of each book, and on the outside of the ornament boxes, we put one of these stickers. We wanted Timmy's name to go in a few places so that he'd be remembered and so that people would know that this project was in remembrance of him.

In each box, we put a copy of "On the Night You Were Born." It's a really special story and would be a nice way for any parent to remember their child each time that they read it. Additionally, siblings could read the story to remember the baby as well.

Here are all of the boxes that we built and screwed together. They are all lined up and ready to be filled.

Something that was given to me at Christmas time is pictured below. If you've ever been to Hallmark or a gift store of that type I'm sure you've seen the Willow Tree Angels there that are available to purchase. We put an angel, holding a small child, in each box. This is what the box looked like. And below that picture is the angel. It's an ornament that can stand alone throughout the year or it can be hung on the tree at Christmas time. Holidays have been some of our toughest times. Everyone else is very happy but it also makes it very apparent that a part of your family is missing. Hopefully seeing something like this around the house would make other parents feel like their child is there with them.

Here is a picture of the angel and child ornament.

Something that I wish we would have been able to do would have been to make an actual imprint of Timmy's hands and feet. We have his prints on paper that I was able to help make, but to do it with clay would have been a great way to remember him as well. We wanted to give others the chance to do this, so in each box is a kit to make hand prints and foot prints.

When I went into the hospital, I was lucky enough to know that I was going to deliver that night. I had my camera with me to take some pictures of Timmy but we know that some people aren't as lucky to have theirs with them. We included cameras in each box so that people could have the chance to take pictures of their baby if they wanted to.

After Timmy passed away, one of my favorite gifts that we got was that a group of my friends went in together and purchased her a bear from the Build a Bear company. Sewn inside are pictures of of myself, Adam, Madelyn, and Timmy. He's also dressed in nautical gear and has a patch sewn onto him that has an anchor on it. This bear is so sweet for Madelyn to have to remember Timmy so we thought that a gift card to Build a Bear would be another good thing to include in our boxes.

Here are all of the boxes, full, and ready for their lids! Once they are at the hospital, they will add in some more paper work on grieving and photography options from Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. That is the company that came and took our pictures of Timmy. They were amazing!

Thank you so much to my new friend Sarah that donated these books for our boxes. So much appreciated!

These hearts are one of my favorite things that went into the boxes. The small heart is meant to stay with the child and the larger heart is for the parents to keep. That way they always have a connection with the child.

Forget Me Not seed packets are in each box for parents to plant to remember their baby.

Above are all of the many wonderful hats that were made by my awesome friends Kristi and Jen. How cute are they? So thankful that they were able to make all of them for us! And below are the Forget Me Not seed packets that went into each box.


Adam and I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone that donated to help us with our boxes. In addition to the boxes we were able to give Melissa a generous donation to the Perinatal Bereavement department. This donation will serve to make more boxes like ours in the future. We honestly believe that this has been a great and positive way for us to remember Timmy and to make a difference for others and in the lives of many families that will go through the same loss that we have.

You might be wondering how you can help us in our cause? We are going to be collecting through a Pay Pal Account that we opened in Timmy's name through this email address: timmycahillfund@yahoo.com. If you know this email address and then join Pay Pal (it is a completely safe way to donate money), then that's all that you need to do. There are several options of how you can pay/donate. This will then enable us to purchase the items above to put the boxes together and then donate to the hospital.

You can follow these steps to sign up for a Pay Pal account if you don't already have one:
1.) Go to paypal.com
2.) Click on "Sign Up" at the top of the page
3.) Click "Get Started" under the "Personal" option
4.) Fill in the required fields with your information
5.) Click "Agree and Create Account"
6.) You can click on the "Not Now" portion of the next "bill me later" screen
7.) Click on "continue" underneath the part that says "Pay with my credit card."
8.) Enter in your credit card information
9.) Click on "Send money"
10.) On the next screen is wher eyou will enter in the email address that you need: timmycahillfund@yahoo.com into the "to:" field
11.) Enter in the amount that you would like to donate
12.) Click on the blue word that says "personal" and click on "other"
13.) On the next screen, you can click on "Send money" and add a personal message if you would like to.

I promise that it's not hard at all to sign up for a Pay Pal account, I just wanted to have all of the steps written out for people just in case they needed help.
THANK YOU!