Caring Resources
These resources can help with understanding and managing kidney disease, living with stress, loss of a sick child, the grieving process, encouraging families, and other issues related to children with kidney disease.
These resources can help with understanding and managing kidney disease, living with stress, loss of a sick child, the grieving process, encouraging families, and other issues related to children with kidney disease.
Blogs & Magazines
Angie Smith: Bring the Rain
www.angiesmithonline.com
Angie Smith writes about her daughter who passed away a few hours after birth. She believes storms blow our way, but with God’s help we can get through them. In this blog she heartfully shares about the trials and struggles after losing a child. Angie is author of the books, I Will Carry You, Mended, and Chasing God.
Kidneys and Eyes & Support for Special Needs
www.kidneysandeyes.com
www.supportforspecialneeds.com
In this blog Julia Roberts wrote about her journey through dialysis and transplants for her two PKD children, including her son's mental health crises. Although Julia stopped writing this blog, you can read past postings at the kidneysandeyes.com address. In addition, Julia still writes for Support for Special Needs, the website that hosted her blog.
Still Standing Magazine: Surviving Child Loss and Infertility www.stillstandingmag.com
Franchesca Cox started this online magazine after losing her first child. Topics range widely, including faith, grief, baby loss, miscarriage, the "new normal," grieving fathers or siblings, and emotional healing. Others resources include blogs, cards, and jewelry that deal with loss.
Books & Bible Studies
A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss
Jerry Sittser
In moments Jerry Sittser's life changed forever. He lost his mother, wife, and daughter in a car accident. Jerry recalls his deep grief and how this tragedy transformed him, deepening his understanding of God's grace. He says circumstances aren't important, but what we do with them proves crucial. Sittser's story is tremendously helpful for the grieving process.
Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn’t Enough
Kay Warren
Kay Warren says we can choose joy, no matter our circumstances. She teaches women the true meaning of joy, where to find it and how to choose it in good and bad times. True joy is attainable, accessible, and richer than we may think. This book empowers women to find true joy within their grasp every day.
Grieving the Child I Never Knew
Kathe Wunnenberg
This devotional collection focuses on mothers who've lost a child through miscarriage, during birth, or shortly after birth. Each entry includes a Scripture passage and prayer; Steps Toward Healing questions; and space for journaling. The entries remember holidays and special occasions.
Kids' Books. Children's books on grief
Water Bugs and Dragonflies by Doris Stickney
Where Do Balloons Go? by Jamie Lee Curtis
Three Minus One: Parents’ Stories of Love and Loss
Kelly Kittel
Inspired by the film Return to Zero, for this book Kelly Kittel collected intimate, soul-baring stories and artwork by parents who lost a child to stillbirth, miscarriage, or neonatal death.
Cards & Gifts
Canva
www.canva.com
Choose from hundreds of professionally designed templates, upload your own photo, fix your images by using filters and add your own text. When you are done designing, you may save, send, share or print your card.
Blue Mountain
www.bluemountain.com
Join as a member to send electronic cards, including encouragement, get well, inspirational, and sympathy cards.
LaBelle Dame
www.labelledame.com
Jewelry to support the spirit. La Belle Dame makes handmade custom jewelry for women who've experienced infertility, miscarriage, and child loss.
Names in the Sand
www.namesinthesand.blogspot.com
Through photography and artwork, Carly Marie captures a priceless memory of children who've passed away. She creates a "seashore or remembrance" where she writes the child's name in the sand with a beautiful sunset in the background. She also offers artwork, cards, and photo galleries of beautiful butterflies drawn in the sand. Her photo is displayed on the front cover of the new book, Three Minus One, a compilation of stories written by mothers who've lost children.
Owl Love Your Forever
http://owlloveyouforever.com
Gift boxes for families who've lost a child before, during, or shortly after giving birth.
Organizations
Kidney Organizations
American Kidney Fund
www.kidneyfund.org
The American Kidney Fund's mission is to fight kidney disease by providing financial support to patients in need, health education, and kidney disease prevention. The organization envisions a world without kidney disease. It wants a nation with fewer kidney disease patients, and for those patients to access the health care they need.
National Kidney Foundation
www.kidney.org
The National Kidney Foundation, a major voluntary nonprofit health organization, is dedicated to preventing kidney and urinary tract diseases; improving the health and well-being of individuals and families affected by kidney disease; and increasing the availability of organs for transplantation. NKF's vision is to enhance the lives of everyone with, at risk of, or affected by kidney disease.
PKD Foundation
www.pkdcure.org
The foundation's mssion to promote programs of research, advocacy, education, support and awareness in order to discover treatments and a cure for polycystic kidney disease and improve the lives of all it affects. Their vision is to one day see that no one will suffer the full effects of polycystic kidney disease. It is an organization that is committed to discovering treatments and a cure for polycystic kidney disease.
ARPKD/CHF Alliance
www.arpkdchf.org
ARPKD/CHF Alliance is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of those affected b ARPKD/CHF. This site is beneficial for those who have been newly diagnosed to those who have had a child pass away. The website provides a plethora of resources of books for grieving, ideas for coping after loss and celebrating their loved one. Their mission is to not only help families but improve research in ARPKD.
Grief Resources
Centering Corporation & Grief Digest Magazine Grief Resources
www.centering.org
This is a one-stop shop for anyone who has experienced grief. This website hosts a plethora of resources for every age, any type of loss, and every kind of grief.
Grief Share
www.griefshare.org
Grief Share provides seminars and support groups, usually in local churches. Seminar leaders understand grief and want to help. Grievers gain access to resources for loss recovery and rebuilding their lives.
MISS Foundation
www.missfoundation.org
MISS is a community of compassion and hope for grieving families. This organization caters to individuals who have experienced the death of a baby or child at any age from any cause. In the United States, 120,000 children die every year, and more than eighty percent pass before their first birthday. The MISS mission offers programs that support, extend love, and offer compassion to families and individuals.
The Compassionate Friends: Providing Grief Support After a Child Dies
http://www.compassionatefriends.org
The Compassionate Friends assist families toward the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child of any age. They also provide information to help those in supporting roles. In addition to the website and an annual conference, chapter groups meet in Glendale, Mesa, and Phoenix, Arizona.