#startasking

So many new, clean, empty ASB kegs. We should probably put something in them. Then send them to your favorite local craft beer bars. #almostthere #OKC #brewery #craftbeer #drinklocal #drinkfresh #startasking

Albert Einstein

I am very excited to be offering a brand new, accessible and love-filled Mothering Your Heart workshop in June. The final pieces are just being put together, but it will be a warm, supportive community-based workshop that runs for four weeks, for those who have experienced miscarriage, infertility and baby loss. For those of you who are taking part in the Mother's Day workshop, this longer time frame gives us a chance to explore the topics, process and move through it all in more depth, and includes the option of 1:1 support if you would like a more personal, private experience. So today's gift is a 'seat' in the workshop at no cost, and it can also be gifted to someone else if the person who receives it would like to pass it on. More information about the June program can be found on the website www.motheringyourheart.com/together. Once again, here are the three steps to enter (bonus entries available today each time you tag a friend who might like to join our June workshop!) 1) like this post 2) like the Mothering Your Heart Instagram page 3) scroll up and click 'motheringyourheart' to go to the instagram profile and click the link there to go to the entry page. You can enter up to 7 times, once per post x 7 days (and yes you can go back to May 1st-4th and enter for these dates as well). All names entered will be compiled for the final draw for all the gifts, which will be on May 8th at 3pm pacific time. Gift recipients will be announced the same day at 6pm and contacted privately by email as well. #motheringyourheart #MyHeartMothersDay #infertility #babyloss #childloss #miscarriage #ihadamiscarriage #adoptionloss #ectopicpregnancy #pregnancyloss #stillbirth #grievingmothers #mamagrief #bereavedmothers #brokenheart #infertilityawareness #ttcsisters #infertilitysucks #startasking #youarenotalone #griefsupport #mama

Dear You: Are Not Alone Infertility Awareness Week ends tomorrow, and then we begin May - for so many hearts a most difficult month. I have been inspired by Susannah Conway's lovely #AprilLoveLetters2016 project as well as the incredible awareness building that happened this week for #NIAW. With all of this in my heart and in honour of Bereaved Mother's Day on May 1st, I would like to reach out and lift others' hearts a little, so I will be holding a special event. Every day this week beginning on May 1st I will post a gift along with a supportive, uplifting note as we go through the days leading up to Mother's Day. On Mother's Day I will randomly draw names for the 7 gifts from those who have entered, to make at least a few hearts a little brighter and because I really just want to shower you all with hugs and wishes for support during this difficult time. As I'm not able to sit down with you all in person and have tea, I will send out these bits of love instead. You'll find the simple 'rules' in tomorrow's post. I wish for you a peaceful weekend and will be thinking of everyone tomorrow who is beginning May with a heavy heart and love for their missing ones on their mind. xo Shannon #motheringyourheart #MyHeartMotherdDay #NIAW #startasking #bereavedmothersday #DearYou

One hour left to register! (Link in Profile) As today is April 30th in some parts of the world, registration closes today at 1pm Pacific Time and the first Mother's Day message is being sent out at 3pm. Now we begin our 10 day journey together that will carry us through Mother's Day. Sign up to receive daily messages of support, a lovely and private community space, as well as journaling prompts and heart sheets to keep you well cared for throughout. This workshop is for anyone who has experienced miscarriage, infertility or baby loss. If you have questions please send me a note at [email protected] Click the link in the profile to sign up if you haven't already. I'm so looking forward to meeting all of you. For those of you who just aren't really into it, don't worry there will be lots of love for you as well over the next week - stay tuned for my next post about bringing a little light to Mother's Day xoxo Shannon #motheringyourheart #myheartmothersday #NIAW #startasking #infertilitysupport #grievinghearts #babyloss #childloss #miscarriage #ihadamiscarriage #adoptionloss #ectopicpregnancy #pregnancyloss #stillbirth #grievingmothers #infertilityawareness #ttcsisters #youarenotalone

As #nationalinfertilityawarenessweek comes to an end, I've realized that I shouldn't be ashamed. We will beat infertility. I want nothing more than to grow our little family. #startasking #almost3years #ttc

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I'm sorry. I know this photo is probably a trigger for many of you. It is actually not a baby that I know, but a beautiful image that I came across which so completely triggered my grief-loss-love that it took my breath away. After our adoption broke down, something that I missed more than words could describe was their little hands. The feeling of their hands in mine, the memory of how their hands worked slowly and deliberately as they figured out the world, their magical perfection. So there is that, wrapped up in this photo, the feeling of utter longing and wanting to be back in a moment. And then there are the babies never met. The children who exist only in my imagination and in my heart. The ones who are frozen in that elusive state of never having been held, and yet forever after my mind has followed all their 'should have beens' and all of their milestones. Oh this would have been the first day of kindergarten, oh this would have been the year she lost her first tooth. And now, the thoughts are less frequent but it doesn't take long to remember, to check in: oh this would have been the year she turned 13, started high school... There is nothing more tightly tangled up in a mother's heart than these mysteries of what might have been. Why our minds do this difficult dance I don't know, it feels both torturous and yet so very natural. There is certainly a part of us that doesn't grasp the missingness, that somehow follows along the should-have-beens timeline without pausing to realize that there is no one to follow, even while the rest of our being is left reeling, gasping, missing so much that it all feels impossible. That massive missing, that lifetime of could have would have should have beens. And so yes, you are my most beautiful mystery. I love you with all my whole entire self, the parts that know you are not here as well as the parts that are blissfully unaware. You are absolute perfection wherever it is that you live, for now tucked inside my heart, inside my mind, mysteriously present in all sorts of ways - even when you are not. #motheringyourheart #NIAW #startasking #infertilitysupport #grievinghearts #babyloss #childloss