Cora's Story & dealing with a loss

There's a little girl named Cora. Five months ago yesterday she passed away in her mother's arms while breastfeeding. Her parents had no idea she was born with a heart defect. When her mother was feeding her in the middle of the night, she looked down and saw blood. Little Cora, who was so perfect on the outside, had an undetected CHD and didn't make it past her 5th day of life. To read her story, visit her page dedicated to CHDs.

Please visit her story and send them a prayer. She's one of the many that I think of daily.

Unfortunately I know how it is to hold your lifeless baby....to feel her get cold....to replay those moments over and over again. I can still hear the deep intense wailing that only a mother could make after losing her child. It's a sound I made for days/weeks, and I can still hear it in my head. I too know the last look she gave me. And I know the strength it takes to go on. My heart goes out to her. With strength from her daughter, she keeps fighting the fight. That is all we can do at this point. We march on and spread awareness and hope that one day no parent or child has to go through this same thing. I know our children have changed our lives, and maybe they did their life's worth of work in that short time and got to go to heaven to get their reward early.

Cora's page (click here) has a great section of helping a friend deal with child loss. Although most of the people in my life were very supportive, I have also heard all the things you shouldn't say to someone over and over again. I still talk about her daily. I will never be able to stop, and that is okay. When someone passes, they are not "dead". They are transformed. To pretend they didn't exist is to give no meaning to that life...to ignore the lessons that life came to teach. Kaia will have a birthday party each year. She will be memorialized on the day of her passing. She will forever be here, and she will forever change lives with her story. She did that while she was here, for us and for hundreds of others. It doesn't end just because we can't see that person anymore. She is still here, and we will always fight for CHD awareness and research in her honor. We will always love and see life through love in her honor. She taught us that petty is stupid. There's no room for it. We are here to love, to be loved and to spread love. And all this is just from our loss...and we have all lost someone we love. There are so many lessons.