Give The Gift of Teamotions Tea & Help Break The Silence

In the days and weeks after my pregnancy losses some of the most comforting moments were in the company of a dear friend and sipping something warm. It was actually how I started to love tea. 

In general as a mom the days can be long and draining no matter how much we love what we do. Sometimes I am lucky to have a few minutes early in the morning before the day begins or late at night after everyone else has settled in. In general I am a coffee drinker but several times a week I do sip some hot tea...it slows me down and prepares me for the busy day or calms and recharges me at the end of the day. Let's be honest, some days we need something to slow us down and rest and it is even more important when we are enduring hardship or loss.

I am thrilled to share an opportunity for you to enjoy some Teamotions Tea and help the STILL Project!

I recently learned about the STILL Project and have been following closely the progress on a documentary they are working on. Having experienced pregnancy loss three times and realizing how nobody wanted to talk about it, I am happy to help spread the word and Break the Silence!

From the STILL Project Website: "STILL is a feature length documentary film project aimed at breaking the cycle of silence surrounding pregnancy and infant loss. STILL will examine the effects of a grief avoidant society and will educate through organic experience."

Here is the video trailer:

About Teamotions (from their website):  'An Emotional Well Being Cup of Tea made into a Truly Healing Experience. ' Teamotions Tea was founded by Rachel Crawford. She found her solace in teas after her twin daughters past in their early weeks of birth. Rachel and her sister Crystal founded Teamotions Tea in 2008 to create and support emotional well-being by transforming a simple cup of tea into a truly healing experience. Teamotions Teas are handcrafted and blended with adaptogen herbs, producing teas that will inspire you and comfort others.

Their goal is to bring back into focus the inherent human need for emotional health and wellness. Tea is their chosen vessel, their means of reaching out to others in a tangible way to express something intangible; their genuine care for their emotional well-being.  It is their belief that a meaningful existence is impossible without emotional wellness.  

Teamotions is donating $2 for every tin of HAVE HOPE tea sold on their website to the STILL Project-now thru August 31, 2013.  It's the perfect Mother's Day gift! Or stock up for Birthdays, Teacher Gifts and more!

See below for more information. 

Visit Teamotioms Website

Disclaimer: This post is my own words, except where noted in referring to info from Teamotionstea.com  and stillproject.org. No monies or products were given to me in exchange for this post. I am just happy to help spread the word.

Seasons

In Minnesota we've been dealing with a lingering winter. The season of spring revealed itself on the calendar but mother nature has still been dishing out snow. Honestly it has been beautiful.

During the winter, while others were complaining about another round of snow...I really embraced it. For the first time in as long as I can recall I did not wish it away. I did not try going through my children's summer clothes to make spring/summer feel closer.

I remember, in past years, feeling really down by the end of January and into February as if the winter would never end.

For some reason this year I let the season be a season. Letting the work of nature do it's thing. I did not rush it. I enjoyed quiet snowy days in my yoga pants. I even dreamed about more of these kinds of days.

What I've come to realize is I was in a season. A season of quiet and relearning who I was. Three years ago, as much as I clung to truth through a very sad time in my life...I let it steal who I was.

I let it define me.

I let it take me from my family in a way.

I put my time in things I could control so to speak. Because so much felt out of control.

This long winter has given me time to hide in a healthy way. For some things to lay dormant. Letting nature and God do their thing.

And now in the right season it will sprout and bloom.

Written on His Hands

On a beautiful spring Saturday morning three years ago I was letting Jessica have chocolate ice cream for breakfast...it was her second birthday. We played outside and had family over that weekend. I walked around outside, barefoot in a skirt and pregnant. I was embracing it like never before.

A few days later my routine check up turned my world upside down again. I can still smell the clinic ultrasound room. The words of my doctor echo over and over inside my head.  The grace that went ahead of shock that eventually turned to despair is as present as ever. The grace covered me.

My water broke on its own for the first time in all my pregnancies and while I wish the circumstances different, I give thanks. I wanted to know that feeling.

I labored the same, not nearly as long but delivered nonetheless. Her gestation did not meet the clinical definition of stillbirth but she was still born. I did not hold her as I had hope but the glimpse through my tear filled eyes from afar reminded me in whom and by whom she had been formed.

In the days that followed I cried, I prayed and I pretended it was all okay. Darkness tried to take over but I held onto the light and even let others hang on for me when I could not.

Sometimes, I think now that it has been a few years I should just tuck it away. But here's the thing I have discovered...grief changes over time but you never stop grieving. It changes you...and some may think hanging onto it will prevent you from moving forward. I disagree. I think hiding it, ignoring the feelings that will still surface and not talking about it; that is what holds you back.

While not everyone understands this kind of loss...someday in someway your life will likely be touched by one like it. Oh how I hope not. It may be distant, it may be oh so close. It may come in a friend or loved one who finally feels they can share the pain they have been hiding.

I have sat on the other side of a computer screen of two dear friends who have said goodbye to babies far too soon in the last month or so. And you know what? I still don't have the right words to say. So I love them, I pray for them and stand in the gap for them when the valley feels near and the green pastures feel unreachable.

It is sad and messy and beautiful and sacred all at once.

I remember. I remember many of the details that may seem best forgotten. Often I find that faint spot on the grout in the bathroom stained crimson. I run my fingers over it and remember. I hold the box where her ashes lay and I look at her cremation certificate and see her name typed and I remember her name is written on His Hands...

...and it is sad and messy and beautiful and sacred all at once.

Because We Need to Talk About It

I have to admit, I knew nothing of this incident in Ohio until I read some posts mentioned below.

When an incident in our community happened recently, though not identical it was an opportunity. An opportunity for my husband and I to talk with our boys (13 and 15). It was one of the many moments to talk about how we value people, how we honor God and how we do the right thing. Along with the way we show them, the way my husband shows them how you treat a girl, a woman.

We have to talk about this and the reason I share the links below is because these faithful women don't just have a way with putting words to this...but the word of God, the very breath of God dwells in each of them...their words are from the very heart of God.

And I offer this: The world will not show our kids Jesus, instead it seeks to draw them away...and our kids, especially now, need Jesus.

Our boys need us to help them stay accountable and not just play it off like they accidentally hit a baseball into the grumpy neighbor's window.

Our girls need us to show them how they are valued, safe and they don't have to say yes.

I am coming to grips with the fact that I cannot put my kids in a bubble, free of all that tries to snatch them up but I can ready them to face it...by showing them where there worth is measured and it is not by the boy's locker room banter or how short her shorts are.

Please take some time and read the posts below. Some are worth sharing with your tweens/teens as appropriate and great discussion starters...and some of it is great resource for you as parents.

Most importantly pray...pray for your children's hearts and minds, for protection. Just as God seeks to protect us from harm, comfort us in loss, redeem our every hurt; He seeks to support us in this important calling as parents.

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*Ann Voskamp at  A Holy Experience :

"Son. When the prevailing thinking is boys will be boys — girls will be garbage."
About Steubenville: 25 Things Our Sons Need To Know About Manhood

*Kristin at We Are That Family :

"It’s time for moms to be offended and stand up to giant stores like Victoria’s Secret and the way they sell sex to our daughters."
Raising Daughters in a World That Devalues Them: 7 Things We Must Tell Them

and

"But this isn’t just about modesty or what stores sell, it’s not about sex or singleness or feminism, it’s about choices we make and boundaries we lay as parents as we raise them in a world filled with degradation and objectification.  It’s about loving our little girls and leading them by example.  It’s about going against what our culture says is okay and trying to live more like Jesus."
Resources for Raising Girls in Our World Today

*Heather at The Extraordinary Ordninary: 

"Treasure the boy that knows you’re a gift to have found."
After Steubenville: notes to my Elsie Jane

and

" We all want our boys to know this, so let’s keep talking to them, and teaching them who comes first. Maybe a lot of people do, but certainly not themselves and ideally, a girl. A cherished girl who is always shown respect and honor, always. Every girl and any girl. First."
On The Steubenville Boys and My Boys