Hey there. I’m Joanna - a believer, wife and mama to five kiddos (four in heaven, one on earth) and one rescue pup. My day job is an art director, but I’m also a certified birth & bereavement doula, drag racing wife, and carb fanatic. I drink straight black coffee, have just started figuring out how to get things to grow in our garden here in the Minnesota Northwoods, and consider chasing our 5 year old my exercise plan.
7 years ago, Hello, Norah started as a way for us to keep our friends and family informed during our journey with our oldest child, our daughter Norah. After Norah’s death, it evolved into a way to document our grief journey, connecting us not only with friends and family, but others walking similar journeys of loss. Having experienced the death of my mother, miscarriages, stillbirth, secondary infertility, and pregnancy after loss, our conversations have widened.
I’m in no way more equipped to handle this ridiculous life than the next person; I promise our day-to-day is just as uniquely chaotic as yours. But at this point we have a cabin in the valley of the shadow of death. So stop by, grab some coffee and rest your feet a minute. Our stories might have more in common than you think.
We’ve received horrible news at ultrasounds, watched our child die in our arms, said Psalm 23 graveside too often and witnessed cancer rip life apart. We’ve walked through secondary infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth and genetic disorders. We’ve prayed, begged, and pleaded with God only to be met with the sting of His ‘No’s and ‘Not Yet’s.
But we’ve also been blessed with many of His ‘Yes’s. Countless beautiful, joyful, incredible moments that sit right alongside impossibly heartbreaking ones.
This blog, our story, it won’t be your source of hope - that’s a job for the Holy Spirit to tackle. But I’m here as a friend in the valley, one who is intimately familiar with these paths, to point out the flowers that can bloom in the darkest places. To show you how we live the word ‘and’ every day - heartbroken and joyful, grieving and celebrating, hurting and healing. To share how we survive.
Your experience, your life, your faith journey all will be different than ours, and it will evolve as uniquely your story does. But maybe our story will encourage you to take the next step forward.
Hebrews 12:1 says “Run with endurance the race set before you.”
Keep going, friend.