Full Testimonials

Brian and I have always believed very much that God played a role in bringing us together. We often joke that we wish we had met sooner, but the truth is, God knew we weren’t ready for each other. Likewise, when we reflect on our daughter, we have to place an equal amount of trust in God with her as we did our love. There are things in this world that we will never understand; things we were never meant to understand and losing her is definitely one of those things. We have to trust that for whatever reason, God needed her more.

The truth is, we find our comfort in knowing that…knowing that she will not suffer in this world, not suffer the things of this world. The selfishness in me want her here, but the child of God in me knows that she is far better off than her father or I am. There were so many things happening at once with Brooklynn’s diagnosis that it seemed like we were on a never-ending rollercoaster of emotions. So many people were throwing information at us, doctors visits, etc. Some we wanted to receive and others we were just blocking out. Our friend, Laura, had been telling me about this organization that made dresses for babies that passed and I honestly dismissed it (but it stuck in the back of my head). I stopped in to visit my friend one day and the conversation about this organization came up again. Honestly, I was dreading it little, but entertained her and as soon as she turned the computer monitor around it read “Glory Baby Ministry” and I knew…they were going to make my daughter’s dress. Some parents get to pick out cribs and newborn outfits but we were picking out coffins, headstones and burial outfits. It didn’t seem fair but at the same time, I soaked up every moment and made it as memorable as possible because we knew it would be the only memorable keepsakes of Brooklynn we would have to hold onto, for our lifetime. I went home, got on Facebook and messaged the Ministry. I heard back almost instantly from Jessica. She was so easy to speak with and very informative. She later opened up about her experience with the loss of her daughter and how she founded the Ministry with her husband and the amazing board that she serves with. I cannot say enough about the volunteers. They were wonderful to work with and treated us very much like family. It was like we had known them for years. Our situation was different because I had a special request that had to be approved by the Board. We requested that they make our daughters dress out of my wedding dress and leftover materials would be donated to the Ministry. After they met, they were willing to and agreed to make the dress. Typically, they receive donated wedding and formal dresses to make a variety of sizes and ship due to the general unexpected nature of infant loss. This is another way I feel we were blessed with Brooklynn; we found out about her condition during our first ultrasound and were able to carry her full-term. Her heartbeat remained strong throughout our whole pregnancy. She was a planned induction and natural birth so that we could spend as much time with her as possible. Our daughter was beautiful and the dress made by the Glory Baby Ministry team only made her more beautiful. To make our experience even more special and wonderful, they told us our daughter would not grow and would be incredibly small. She was not (by the medical standards). She surpassed all medical expectations and was a full-term size for delivery date. She was delivered four weeks early and weighed in over four pounds. Glory Baby and Jessica stayed in constant contact with us and because of the changes and discussion from the doctors, the organization made two different dress sizes for Brooklynn. Thankfully so because the original dress (the projected size they told us she would be) would not have fit her. The second dress fit her perfectly and was honestly almost too small. We cannot say enough great things about our experience and the opportunity that Glory Baby blessed us with. In addition to Brooklynn’s dress, they also provided us with a beautiful keepsake memorial package. Glory Baby is much more than just a service that provides memorial and burial gown packages, they are a network, a community, a resource, a family to support your family in whatever capacity you need…as little or as much as you need during your pregnancy, your loss and the grieving process.