August 19th is about coming together as a whole community to openly speak about these children and celebrating their short lives. Each year thousands of people around the globe take part in The Day Of Hope by hanging up prayer flags in honour of their babies and children that have died. Many people also share our Prayer Flag awareness images on facebook, instagram, twitter and other social networks. These images can be found through my albums in the links below. You can use the images on your own blog or website. Please feel welcome to post one of our awareness images as your profile picture on your favourite social media website! You can use the hashtag #august19thdayofhopeObviously having only read this less than an hour ago, I don't have time to make an appropriate prayer flag, but I will definitely plan on making one soon, and proudly hang it. Maybe one for home, one for work, one for my car? The possibilities are endless of what I could do. While Preston was only with us for 16 weeks, it still enabled us to learn a lot about him; about his likes and dislikes. Likes: bright colors, lullabies, bouncing, doggies/bunnies, being read to, kicking, smiling. Dislikes: being wet, loud things. And of course, there's the things that we deduce he would have liked: baseball, bears, pizza, chocolate chip cookies. It' interesting to think, after Preston first passed, I wanted to have a quilt made out of all his onesies and wrap myself in it every day. Thinking about using one for the flag, I don't like the idea. Funny how the mind works. I guess I'm glad for one piece of advice we received soon after losing Preston - Don't make any important decisions for at least a year. I feel that changing something of his, would be an important decision, because once it's changed, you can't go back. So who knows what will ever become of this quilt idea.
The other part of the event is lighting a candle and joining the event by streaming it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CarlyMarieDudley
I'm thinking I want to tune in tonight at 8:30pm (so 7:30 PST, 10:30 EST). It again, promises to be an emotional time, but at the same time, these ladies that are going to be speakers (8 of them?) may very well have things to say that are helpful to me. Perhaps I will listen for a bit and it will be too much? At least I will be in the comfort of my own home, with mementos of Preston, with hubby somewhere close by.
I'm simply amazed by the different things angel mamas go out of their way to do for other moms who have lost. Whether it be through a tree which carries the names of our angels, whether it be on a quilt with a memorial square for each of our babies, or with bracelets with angel wings to represent our losses. There are others, who like me, somehow find words in the hopes of inspiring others, and put the names of their babies out there for the whole world to see. There are others who create world wide events with people who will speak on this tough subject. There are others who offer countless hours to listen to you vent, scream and cry. There are some who help organize community events, like the Angel Walk from this past Sunday, to help memorialize our babies. All these things make us feel less alone. All these things mean the world to us. All these things, create awareness and make us all a little more comfortable with sharing our stories, thoughts, fears.
In closing, I have to share a message I received today through BBC.
I was responding to a post and was looking at your sweet boys pictures and I had to say his picture makes me smile everytime I come across your posts!! I will be sitting here wanting to cry and poof..I see his smile and I realize I'm smiling back at him..thank you for sharing him with us..I'm struggling sooo hard with the loss of my babies and this made tonight less hard
I figured since I kept smiling it would be so much better to tell you than keep it to myself..I know how much it meant for me to be told from another lady that she loved seeing my belly growing when I posted pics of how big I got..just something so simple made my babies passing away feel a little less empty..I had gotten to work early since I needed to go have my BP checked again today. It's good by the way. Another 6 weeks or so like this and hopefully that means I can come off the meds altogether! For now, just being cautious and taking it slow as to not suffer a set-back. Anyway, I didn't need to clock in for a while, so I checked on BBC for posts I follow on a daily basis, to see how fellow angel moms were doing this morning, and I saw that I had a message. I just nearly cried my eyes out. Preston, baby boy, you are making your mama so proud. You aren't here anymore, but you really are spreading happiness. You really do have a purpose on this Earth, even though you have grown wings to fly. This just made my day, my week and is making me teary eyed all over again. Thank you "ImTypo". Your babies would be proud of you for sharing this moment of light in your darkest hours.
Preston seems to be smiling in every picture which tells me he was so full of joy and happiness that he would be happy to know he made a very lost mommy smile in her darkest days..Thank you for sharing your sunshine with this mommy who felt the rays :)
Sharing this per the permission of CarlyMarie (from her Facebook page):
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