by Tara Shafer posted in Parenting

Last week I stumbled upon a beautiful Instagram post from my friend Lindsey Henke, founder of Pregnancy After Loss Support. The post contained her radiant children in a touching family portrait. Lindsey and her husband Nicholas look joyfully upon their two living children.
Zoe and Liev are delightful and squirming. In the shadow of their joy is the memory of Nora who was stillborn at full term.
This picture was especially joyful to behold because it answers the perennial question of bereaved parents.
The question that looms is as profound as it is terrifying: will I ever be happy again"
Spoiler alert: yes, you will.

Wrote Lindsey:
?Four years ago if you would have asked me whether I could be happy again after losing Nora I would have said I don?t know. In the deepness of grief and not a subsequent pregnancy in sight I feared we would be childless forever ? [But now] four and a half years later this picture shows how far we have come. The photo radiates our joy. A joy I thought was out of our reach ? [D]on?t get me wrong, we ache for Nora every day ? I will continue to wonder who she would have been ? But in this photo and for this time in my life ? we are happy. Joy will find you again. If you let both the dark and the light in.? I know well the struggle Lindsey so beautifully describes. When my son was stillborn I have a strong memory of the depths of despair, the hitting of rock bottom. It happened when I was driving around aimle...