A Parent’s Story

On the 5th of September 2018 we lost our precious little boy Nate who had trisomy 16. We went to the hospital for a gender scan all excited only to find out our little man no longer had a heartbeat. The hardest thing we ever had to go through. Sitting in that hospital waiting to have surgery to remove the little life we had created was made so much easier when our nurse brought in a bears of hope bag.

In our bag we had a little bear and written on that tag was the name Sophie Cleo Raftery 14/12/2008. To know that a family struggling with the loss we were facing brought us so much comfort at a time we felt so alone and saved us from walking out of that hospital with empty arms. During the most painful part of our grieving we always had our little bear close, sleeping with her each night and taking her with us to every specialist appointment after our loss.

Nate was our eighth pregnancy and after this enormous loss we had given up hope being told we wouldn’t ever get the family we craved so much.

On the 8th of December we again found out we were expecting - and to our disbelief we had a perfect pregnancy and our little miracle rainbow baby flourished with perfect health! August 14 2019 at 2:19pm we welcomed a healthy beautiful baby girl, and decided without hesitation to name her Sophie. We wanted to honour the little life that left too soon and a family who helped us more than they could ever know.

Last month I was on the bears of hope website to purchase a t-shirt and came across the different range of bears. I was looking and couldn’t believe my eyes when I read Sophie bears story and realised I could actually contact the amazing family who helped us through our darkest moments. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the donation you made that we received and we hope you can take comfort in knowing your angel will always be remembered by another family who she touched.