Healing Journey Journal

HEALING JOURNEY JOURNAL

A few people suggested writing in a journal to deal with grief, but I didn't think I needed to... I decided to make some journals for the boxes (since when we first started this project I didn't know how to sew, and this was something I could do by myself, without sending cutouts to others to sew!), and eventually was convinced to write on my own.  When I finally tried it out, I found that it was healing to use an actual pen on paper instead of just typing words on a blog, so here is our Grief (or Healing) Journey Journal:  (PDF link if you want to print and make some https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6luM46oAMznVHh5b1ptWUNvRms/view?usp=sharing) The last poems after the lined pages are optional, I don't include all of them. 
  
 Laminated covers for durability, with dried flowers or leaves. 

Envelopes, for a letter to the baby, and keepsakes such as a lock of hair (if the baby had hair) and cards from loved ones. 

 Topics from Carly Marie's "Capture Your Grief" project for the month of October- pregnancy & infant loss awareness month. I thought the topics would work well for journaling as well.  http://carlymarieprojectheal.com/2013/09/capture-your-grief-october-2013.html

Scrapbook pages and lined paper for photos/drawing/pasting/writing about the topics, or whatever the parents want to write about. 

And, a few poems and thoughts. I've put these photos here in case others want to make homemade journals.  They are a bit time consuming, but they are nice for parents to use along the journey through grief.