Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness: How to Honor Your Angel

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October marks Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness (PAIL) month. Over the course of this month, I’ll feature a series of posts dedicated to this month. It’s a bittersweet month for me. Sweet because it’s my birthday month, bitter because I’m reminded of my lost babies (not that I ever forget them).

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This marks the final post in the PAIL series for this month. I’m going to talk about the different ways you can honor your angel.

We honor Ethan in a variety of ways. Honestly, we honor him all of the time. Even when we pray, we always include him (and jellybean). But here are just a few things we do:

Tattoos. I know some people love them and some hate them. Maks and I both got tattoos in honor of our boy:

I know some parents get a tattoo of their angels birthdates, names, and even add wings to signify they’re angels.

2. Balloon release. I know this is up for debate because of the environment factor. We do a balloon release every year on Ethan’s birthday – 12/13.

3. Memorial jewelry. I had a special ring I wore along with a necklace.

My ring went missing 🙁 but I’m glad it didn’t cost too much. I think it’s somewhere around the house. The stone is Ethan’s December birthstone.

The birthstone angel part did fall off but the important part – Ethan’s name and birthdate – I still have.

4. We make donations in Ethan’s name. We regularly donate to the L.A. Food Bank and have the donations In Memory Of.

5. March of Dimes. We did this one year and it was a lot of fun (though they are under some controversy as to how the donations are used, so do your research.)

6. Molly Bears. If you had a late loss, you can request a Molly Bear and it’ll be sent to you (though the wait time varies). Molly Bears run 100% on donation. I have an Ethan Molly Bear.

The below photo was taken during our maternity photos with House of Designs.

Those are just some of the ways we honor our Ethan. How do you honor your angel?

As October draws to a close, I thank everyone for their support of me and other angel moms. October tends to be a tough month for all of us as we honor our lost babies so we really appreciate your support. For those new to the series and blog, I hope you found the PAIL series posts to be therapeutic as well.