We have big plans for The Amethyst Network to serve families impacted by miscarriage across the country. To help achieve our goals, we’ve launched a Indiegogo fundraising campaign (featuring some great perks for donors, such as a print from The Mandala Journey!). Check it out and make a contribution!

As one of the members of the TAN board explains:

We got off to a slow start. For our own reasons, it didn’t take off as we had envisioned. We kept in touch but we were all quite overwhelmed with other things. Then this fall we had a renewed energy. I know for my part, the time felt right again. There was a drive coming from somewhere else to revive and renew the Amethyst Network. We refocused our energy. We refined our goals. And with new energy, the Amethyst Network is moving forward in amazing ways.

We hope that this will become a place of support, of hope, and of healing for women experiencing miscarriage and pregnancy loss. We hope that this will become a place for people to share their stories of miscarriage and pregnancy loss. We hope you will find solace and support here.

And that is the story of the Amethyst Network.

Another new project is our upcoming Day of Hope and Healing on February 25. Amethyst is the February birthstone—several members of the board, including me, have miscarriage anniversaries in February and the inspiration for TAN’s name also came from Amethyst, the still-missed baby sister of one of the founding members–so February feels like the perfect time to host a special event. Here is an explanation of the day:

Although we do participate in and support the wave of light on October 15, and the other infant loss awareness and remembrance days in October, we wanted to have a day of our own to focus on living in the present and looking forward, in addition to the days for looking back.

February 25 is Amethyst’s birthday, and so we felt like this was the perfect day to choose for our Day of Hope and Healing.

Many of us are familiar with the stages of grief, but we feel that grieving is one of the stages of healing. In other words, whether you are in the depth of fresh grief, or whether it has been years since your loss, we invite you to join us on this day to acknowledge the journey that we all are on.

Since everyone is in a different part of their journey, we are not asking everyone to do the same thing. Instead we invite you to participate in whatever way meets your needs at this time. Here are a few suggestions that we thought of, and please visit our pinterest page for some visual inspiration. We welcome additional ideas.

Plant flowers or a tree
Light a candle
Make a luminary
Make prayer flags
Buy a piece of jewelry or art that reminds you of your little one
Make a cake to celebrate or remember your little ones birth, loss, or memory
Read stories of other Amethyst Babies, or of Garnet Babies
Submit your story of loss or hope to TAN to be shared with the stories there
Submit your little one’s name to the Forget Me Not Garden at TAN
Write a letter to your little one, and then burn it and let the smoke carry it to him or her
Make a donation to TAN in memory of your little one
Blog about your little one, TAN, or the Day of Hope and Healing
Call a radio show and dedicate a song to your little one
Begin the process of becoming a TAN loss doula so that you can help others