Three Little Birds is excited to announce the launch of our newest legacy project, Zara's Tootsies in memory of Zara Frances Shamim!
This legacy project focuses on taking a baby's unique special footprints and include them on a variety of craft and remembrance items. Using her Cricut Machine, Zara's mom Caitlin, is able to give loss parents in our nest a vinyl decal of their own baby's footprints. Through the end of the year, she is making holiday crafts with others at our upcoming Craft & Heal support event on November 21 and our holiday event, the Gathering of the Grinches on December 4th. In 2023, she plans to create items that can be gifted to families in our nest, as well as serve as fundraisers through our Etsy store in her memory!
By Caitlin Wraith, Zara's mom:
My whole life, I’ve been a crafter. In October of 2021, I excitedly made a craft I’d been looking forward to making for as long as I can remember, my pregnant mommy costume, but I never got to wear it.
My sweet Zara passed away peacefully in my belly at 21 weeks, barely a week shy of Halloween. I can’t remember that Halloween, nor can I really remember Thanksgiving. It took until mid-December for me to even begin to consider any activity outside of strictly survival.
Before my loss, I made crafts at least weekly but I hadn’t touched my craft room in almost two months. It was supposed to have been remodeled into a nursery, and it didn’t feel right to find any joy in there anymore. As we approached the winter holidays that always make me think of family, I remembered how I’ve made an ornament for every family member of ours, and I was struck by wanting to make my Zara her ornament, a way to always include her in our holiday traditions forever. Making that craft, placing her perfect little tootsies for our family to see each year, it soothed a part of my heart. I immediately found the only other loss mom I knew at that time and asked her if I could make her son an ornament too. Seeing her face beam, holding her hand tightly, I knew I had to help other parents, but I didn’t yet know how.
A few months later, a kind mom from our very own nest found me in Three Little Bird's Facebook group and I saw something I never could have dreamed up in my wildest imagination: a monthly crafting group for local loss parents! I cried when I told my therapist. It was exactly what I needed to help me find my new identity as a mom, one with empty arms for now. I craft to remember myself, the person I always was, and I craft to remember my baby, to remember that her memory includes sadness, yes, but also joy and pride. I craft to give other parents a memory of their baby to include wherever gives them peace: in holidays, in art pieces, at home, and in community. I craft to make my Zara proud of my resilience, my skills, my compassion, and my generosity. I craft because I’m Zara’s mom, and I want to help you remember your sweet baby forever.
Are you interested in starting a legacy project to find healing through advocacy? Let us know by emailing us at threelittlebirdsperinatal@gmail.com.