In January 2019 our family faced the deepest loss of our lives - our baby boy Caleb was diagnosed in utero with anencephaly, a neural tube defect that is 'incompatible with life.' We lost him without ever meeting him, but we think every day what it would have been like to say goodbye if he had been stillborn. Naming our son and remembering him has been essential to our family's healing, and if Caleb had been born sleeping, the opportunity to take the time and space to say our goodbye to him in our own way would have been incredibly important.

To honor Caleb's memory and in order to provide a little bit of peace and healing for other families facing the loss of a baby, we are raising money to donate a Caring Cradle to Labor & Delivery at The University of Kansas Health System. The Caring Cradle (https://caringcradle) is a device that offers a more dignified way for parents and families to spend time with their baby immediately following infant loss. By cooling the precious body of a baby, the natural changes that occur in death are slowed. This allows parents memory making time; out of town family to arrive; pictures to be taken; and above all the ability to hold, rock, bathe, and cuddle the baby without worry or rush.