“I was coming up on the first birthday for my son who had passed away at 3.5 weeks old. It was a really raw and emotional time for me and I knew it would be a really hard day, but I wanted to do something to celebrate Aiden's life that was meaningful. My mom inspired me by setting up a service project for our whole family to participate in - to put together "baby kits" for an organization that provided needed supplies for refugees. Since I was the only one of my siblings who lived away, it would be hard for me to participate. So, I set up my own service project for my ward: donating needed supplies to a domestic violence shelter here in our town, and then handing out cupcakes to those who donated, in honor of Aiden's birthday.
The day came, and it was actually a really great day that was full of tender mercies. Many friends and family reached out to express their love and support, I was able to get a lot of supplies for my own service project and the people at the domestic violence shelter were so surprised and happy with our many donations, and to top it all off, my husband's sister had organized service projects for his entire family to do in honor of Aiden and they surprised us with a beautifully put together video showing of all of them participating in their chosen service and holding "Happy Birthday Aiden" signs.
The last tender mercy of the day was that I was able to attend the temple with my husband, because our good friends offered to babysit our 3 year old, but most importantly, a young woman in our ward had previously invited us to attend as she received her endowment - which was a huge blessing because the temple was only open for scheduled live ordinances at the time because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This young woman had no idea how much that meant to us on that specific day. As we were in the temple, I felt very strongly that Aiden wanted us to celebrate him by doing service for others, and that was why my mom, myself and my sister in law all felt so inspired to set up service projects to honor him. I felt Heavenly Father's love very strongly for me, my husband and both of our sons, and I felt that both He and Aiden were pleased with us that we were sealed in the temple and were striving to keep our covenants. Losing a child is not something that I would wish on anyone, but I absolutely believe there are tender mercies in trials, and that they can make us better if we let them.”
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