The Village Retreat 2020

Once the initial retreat was over and I saw that I already had interest in continuing this mission, I set out to make The Village of Stillborn Mamas into an official 501c3 nonprofit. In parallel, I booked the house for The Village Retreat 2020 in Carolina Beach, NC - around 2.5 hours from my home in Raleigh. I had enjoyed the beach vibe very much and wanted to continue down this same path, I was even able to book a house directly on the beach for this one!

Registration always opens on August 8th - this is the birthday of my great-grandmother, Pauline Anderson. She was a pistol and a very special person in my life and this is my way of honoring her and having her play a part in what I am doing with The Village. 

I was up bright and early on the morning of Aug 8, per usual. However, before I had even posted anything about registration opening up, I received a Facebook message from a woman in California. She asked when registration would open up because she had stayed up all night to ensure she didn’t miss it. I was shocked and so humbled. 

I opened registration and immediately had seven women register - I only had space for five. I closed registration and prayed. I knew in my heart I couldn’t turn any of these women away. I decided to book another house for my husband (the chef) and the yoga instructor (one of my very best friends) to stay in. I went back and emailed the women on the “wait list” to let them know the deal, I even had enough space to invite everyone back from the first year - all but one of them came (and she didn’t come because of Covid)! 

The day before the retreat came and my yoga instructor called to tell me she fell and broke her ribs and so was unable to attend. I told her the good news - “this isn’t a yoga retreat!” I also had one mama call and cancel because her grandfather had gotten very sick and ended up not making it - make sure you read the story of The Village Retreat 2021 to hear more about this amazing mama. These last 2 changes meant that no one had to share a room (which is always the plan anyway) and we had ample time for everyone to share their story with the whole group. 

We ended up having six new stillborn mamas join our community in 2020 - and two of our stillborn mamas from 2019 came back to attend as mentors to this new group. Of the new mamas, four of them became pregnant after registering to attend the retreat. One of the 2019 mamas was also pregnant; therefore, we were able to incorporate real and relevant dialogue about pregnancy after loss into the retreat discussion. The Lord always brings together the perfect group of women to the retreat!