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Written by Corinne O'Flynn
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 Thank you to everyone who was able to be a part of the 2nd Annual RTF Butterfly Release and Summer Remembrance Event this past Saturday, June 27th, 2009. On behalf of our board and volunteers at RTF, I'd like to express our gratitude for allowing us to remember and honor your children with you in this way.
We were blessed with another glorious Colorado morning. Clear blue skies and birds chirping in the trees that surround the memorial plaza in the summer. The field around the memorial looked so different this year compared to last as we have had the most incredibly wet and stormy Springtime this year. As a result the wildflowers were not yet blooming, and the field was more grassy than full of growth.
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Written by Administrator
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 Join other Trisomy families in beautiful
Roanoke, Virginia for the
23rd Annual SOFT International Conference!
JULY 22 - 26, 2009
Jamie & Kristie Lint, 2009 SOFT Conference Chairpersons, and the entire SOFT of Virginia conference committee, invite you to the 23rd Annual SOFT Conference in historic Roanoke, located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Western Virginia.
The conference provides families with not only educational and medical resources, but a time and place to build friendships and memories with others who are going through the same journey.
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Written by Corinne O'Flynn
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 Are you 18-40 years old, have had one or two pregnancy losses, and are interested in becoming pregnant again?
If you are, you may be eligible to join a very important study that may improve your chances of becoming pregnant and may also help you to have a healthier pregnancy.
Available information shows that low-dose aspirin (LDA) may improve pregnancy outcomes.
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Written by Corinne O'Flynn
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 Told by Angie and Cecil Bellephant, Written by Tracy Ahrens
One couple's journey through loving and letting go of a son with Potter's Syndrome.
Giant Hero is a wonderful book that tells the bittersweet story of the pregnancy and short life of Titus Bellephant, diagnosed in utero with Potter's Syndrome (bilateral renal agenesis).
Through the telling of this story, written by a journalist and friend of the family, we get a glimpse of the Bellephants, the trial they endure through the pregnancy and birth of their son, how faith played a role in their journey, and how they faced their grief after Titus was gone.
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Written by Christian's Mom Debbie
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Christian Alan Michael Innes
March 25, 2009
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Written by Corinne O'Flynn
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 I just received an email newsletter from my friend Lisa in which she wrote about a conversation she had with a friend of hers who is a therapist. Lisa told her friend she was, "So angry and hurt and don't know what I am supposed to do with all of it." Her friend looked at her and said, "You do nothing with it, you just allow yourself to feel it." To which Lisa replies, "WOW."
It seems so plain and simple.
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Written by Corinne O'Flynn
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 Trying to remain objective in the face of emotion
I asked my husband the other day if he thought about our deceased
daughter daily. His response was that he did not. I respect the fact
that he answered the question honestly, considering he must have known
it might upset me. He had an apologetic tone as he did so because I am
sure he knew it was not what I was hoping to hear. I suppressed the
knee-jerk flare up of righteous-indignant defense of our daughter's
memory, and tried instead to make sense of why this is the case. But
since then I had been troubled by the knowledge that she doesn't occupy
his mind in the same way that she does mine.
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Written by Kristi Sagrillo
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 Dealing with the reality of changing relationships after your child dies.
A wise gardener once told me that if you want a beautiful garden to
grow you must weed it from time to time. Weeding for any gardener,
whether it’s a small flower pot on the front porch or a gorgeous flower
garden in the backyard is an assumed task and occasionally just has to
be done. However, if you neglect to prune the weeds they will
eventually begin to overcrowd or, worse yet, become invasive and try
and take over your entire garden.
After the death of my son, I began to apply this same logic to my own life.
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Written by Daniel Raeburn
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Irene Raeburn: born December 28, 2004; died December 24, 2004
On our third date, Rebekah gave me one of her bowls. We sat at my kitchen table, her bowl between us, while she told me how she'd made it. She explained that a potter needs to throw the same pot over and over until the shape of the vessel becomes second nature, until she can form it so fluently that even her slipups grow spontaneous and confident. I turned Rebekah's bowl in my hands as she pointed out the accidents that had occurred during its creation. On the wheel, the lip of the pot had relaxed from a strict circle to a more comfortable roundness. Inside the kiln, the iron glaze on a neighboring pot had vaporized, ghosting its ruddy afterimage like a blush across the bowl's glossy cheek. These imperfections were what Rebekah cherished. Mistakes made the clay human.
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