With Thanksgiving approaching here in the US, the entire month of November is often a time of reflection and of identifying people, events and experiences that we are thankful for.

Here at stillbirthday, we have a program called Ripples that challenges parents to identify aspects of their experiences that have impacted them and those around them in a positive way.

One of the most important realizations I have reached through my loss experience that I am tremendously thankful for is that I am not alone.

I am not thankful that others have experienced loss, but I am humbled – profusely, profoundly, deep to my core humbled – by the courage, the care, the compassion and the love other families exhibit when they share their experiences.  When they show their deepest vulnerabilities to reach beyond our cultural fears, taboos, indifference and terrible misunderstandings of loss, to simply say to other heartbroken families

“You are not alone.”

I also know that is is HARD to put your experiences into a website.  It is HARD to have your work criticised, minimized, ridiculed, judged, lied about, and stolen.  It is HARD to see your loved ones pressure you to stop helping others, wish you’d shut your website down, and shame you into “getting over it” when the “it” they speak of, is healing, is rewarding, is productive, and is important.

Truly helping others isn’t being stuck in the most painful parts of yesterday.  It is instead helping to bring forward the most important tools to create a most healing place tomorrow – for yourself, and for others.

It is HARD to find yourself seeking legal council to defend hurting mothers against the public’s slander and dishonesty.  It is HARD to see people so recklessly forget that you are also and still a bereaved mother or father.  It is HARD to see competition rather than collaboration.

This isn’t just business.  It’s bereavement.

Stillbirthday offers unique and important resources for families, from prior to loss, during loss, and after the actual event has occured.  Stillbirthday NEEDS to be spread to midwives, nurses, obstetricians and others, because of our unique and important resources.

However, we are also a network.  A network filled with resources from all over the globe and all over the internet, resources built by other bereaved parents.  Resources that have been born out of the darkest of days, the most hurtful of experiences, and the deeepest compassion of others who lovingly and courageously say

“You are not alone.”

I am thankful for each of these organizations, each of these efforts, each of these families, each of these babies.

To say thank you, I want to let you know that I value you.  That I want stillbirthday to break those hurtful, competitive trends, and reach across these obstacles to speak the message of love, of kinship, of understanding, that you so sacrificially share to others

“You are not alone.”

Beginning January 1, stillbirthday has an absolutely wonderful opportunity for ALL bereaved families, and I want to make sure that everyone knows about it.  It is an opportunity that will be fun, challenging, inspiring, will help you grow personally and will help us grow as a community.

And, it has an absolutely stunning first place prize, worth $200!

I want everyone to know about it.

I want to challenge everyone to take The Grief Dare.

I want to extend my appreciation to bereavement organizations everywhere.  In return, let the families you serve know about The Grief Dare.

Stillbirthday is offering you two months of free advertising.  Your logo will be featured in the right sidebar for two months in 2013.

Thank you for your support in the bereavement community.  I know it isn’t easy.

To submit your bereavement organization logo, please email your logo – it must be a square – to heidi.faith@stillbirthday.com, before January 1, 2013.  Please include “free ad” in the subject line.

Click to learn more about our advertising opportunities.

Advertising with stillbirthday: stillbirthday is considered a blog, which means that it has its own unique SEO features.  Similarly, as a blog, stillbirthday has easy access into various directories, aggregators, and syndication websites.  The site creator is also the site developer, so new articles are added easily and quickly.  Stillbirthday receives new stories to be added regularly, thus the site is constantly being updated and viewed for the newest content; search engines immediately index this new content, making it visible within 15 minutes of publishing.  Search engines favor frequently visited sites.  Stillbirthday has faithfully received well over 20,000 visitors every month since our opening in August, 2011 – this number has increased to 50,000 monthly since August 2012.  Our traffic and attention is huge, and it would benefit your company to be a part of pregnancy loss support by becoming a stillbirthday sponsor.