Behind the doors of a Plano home, is a colorful play date that’s been two years in the making.
After being friends on a secret Facebook group for rainbow babies, many of the moms and their infants and toddlers are meeting in person for the first time.
“It’s bizarre and amazing,” said host Danielle Dehn. “I feel like we should have name tags that have our Facebook profile picture on them too—because that’s how we know each other.”
Dehn’s family is hosting other families from across the country. A mom with freshly-dyed rainbow hair came from California. From Colorado, came the Facebook group’s creator, Nancy Johnson.
Their hand-printed t-shirts came from Kelly Miller in McKinney.
“This group really just surrounded us with hope and support, and we all come from such different tragedies but no one tragedy is more significant than the other,” Miller said.
All of the mothers in this group have one thing in common: they’ve all given birth to rainbow babies.
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“This is Savannah, she is our 16-month-old miracle baby. She’s our rainbow,” Dehn said.
A rainbow, for these moms, is the calm after the storm of loss.
“Not a lot of people know what it means to have a miscarriage,” Dehn said.
“The first loss I had I was 17 weeks, um, and I went in for a checkup and there was no heartbeat,” Johnson said.
“We had a baby at 20 weeks, so I have her ashes around my neck,” Miller said while grabbing her tear-drop shaped necklace.
They have all lost a child at various stages of pregnancy or infancy.
“I was depressed for quite some time after,” Johnson said.
“It’s something that stays with you. It’s something that affects all the areas of your life,” Dehn said.
Through the unimaginable pain and uncertainty, these moms were there for each other.
“It’s helpful because I get advice. I mean, I don’t feel like I’m alone in this. I know that there are others that have experienced what I’ve experienced,” said Johnson.
“Because other people really can’t understand that grief. Simple questions like, ‘is this your only baby?’ that’s difficult,” Miller said.
“This group was a bunch of women that had experienced that loss and wanted to support one another through the fear and the pain that happens when you get pregnant again,” Dehn said. “Because you don’t ever know—you don’t know until they come, you know, until you have them, that it’s going to last, you know, that the pregnancy is going to last."
Sharing their fears with one another, and offering this message to you if you ever find yourself in the middle of that storm of loss.
“There’s always a rainbow after the storm,” Miller said. “And let your faith be bigger than your fear.”
They said they want other moms to know that there is hope, and there is support.
