Inspirational Bereaved Parent - Guest Post by Larisa Barth from Held Your Whole Life

Today I have the honor of sharing Asher Finn Barth's story through the wonderful work his mom, Larisa Barth, does in his name.  She has started a fabulous memorial jewelry organization called Held Your Whole Life.  Here she gives away memorial jewelry in honor of babies who never took a breath.  To date she has given away over 3,000 pieces in all 50 states and around the world. 

I am excited to share her INSPIRATIONAL story.  Welcome Larisa, Asher's Mom. 

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Our first born son, Asher Finn Barth, came silently into this world on his due date, October 9th, 2011. After a picture perfect 40 week pregnancy and an active little monkey in my womb, you never expect to hear those words, "I'm so sorry but your baby doesn't have a heart beat." I gave birth to death, and held my warm and beautiful 5lbs 5ozs baby boy and begged God to give him breath. I thought my life had ended that day and I would never smile again.

The journey to joy is a long and difficult one, and sometimes time seems to stand still even though the world is flying by. It was almost a year after my greatest heartbreak that my husband and I founded Held Your Whole Life to support families whose babies never took a breath on this earth. We want to acknowledge the lives of the children who are lost before they were born. In just a few short months, we have made over 3,000 personalized hand stamped necklaces and shipped them world-wide. We also felt that the dads were often left out, so we now create keychains that say "Held Your Whole Life in Daddy's heart" and include their angel baby's name.

Seeing our Asher Finn’s name brings so much comfort and we wanted to offer that to other grieving families. Our baby was our firstborn, our son, our child. He is not a “fetal demise”. I hate that term. I hate that the doctors and nurses and legislators refer to him as such. Part of healing for us has been proudly talking about our son and recognizing the lives of babies born in silence. 

I firmly believe in different love languages and I receive and give love through gifts. Asher's life was such an amazing gift to me and I am honored to parent him by giving beautiful tokens of remembrance to other grieving families. I am not afraid to say my son's name and I hope to empower others to break the silence.

Larisa is 28, the wife of a courageous husband who is a pastor, and mother to Asher Finn in heaven and Kamari Morning on earth. You can request one of Larisa's necklaces at Held Your Whole Life or you visit her on Facebook.