Little in life is as heartbreaking as the loss of an infant or child. We ourselves have been profoundly impacted by this heartbreaking loss. Simon Says Grow would like to honor that loss by preserving their memory in a shadowbox. We will take items that represent your child and work with you to create a memorial that you will cherish for years to come.

In honor of these precious lives, we are happy to provide this service to you free of charge. We simply ask that you pay for the shadowbox and shipping charges.

How does it work? Simply send us the items you would like included in the box. We will work with you to create the display.

Any donations to this project are appreciated. This will help offset the cost of materials and shipping. We would love to make this project completely free for these grieving families.

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Christopher’s Story

In October 2022, Caleb and I found out that our little Christopher was on his way! It was a very surreal moment filled with anticipation, nervousness, and excitement. We had no idea the journey God was about to take us on; we were just excited about the little life that had joined our family! Over the next several weeks, we anxiously waited to tell our families about their first grandbaby. Happiness and joy was all around. Everything seemed perfect for a moment. But then, that moment seemingly ended. Sorrow and grief soon mixed with our happiness and joy.

When we were 24 weeks pregnant with Christopher, we found out about his congenital heart defects through a follow up from our anatomy scan. The initial diagnosis from the doctors left us with very little hope that Christopher would even survive to birth. We also knew that his chances of survival after birth were quite slim. Yet, we continued on in faith knowing that God would take care of all of us no matter what happened. God sustained all three of us through each day. Caleb and I started going to weekly checkups to check on Christopher’s growth and monitor his heart condition as well as monitor my physical symptoms during pregnancy. These appointments were a wonderful blessing as we got to see our sweet boy through ultrasound every single week! Each week slowly passed with God providing sweet blessings and comfort throughout our pregnancy.

Then, Christopher decided it was time to enter the world - three weeks early! Twenty-five hours after my water broke, Christopher was born. God again sustained and protected us throughout the delivery process. Although Christopher spent all of his twelve days in a hospital PICU/NICU, we cherished every single moment with him! God in His goodness gave us such a sweet time to enjoy Christopher and get to know him. God prevented Christopher’s heart issues from causing too many complications at first to give us a chance to enjoy him simply as a sweet newborn baby. We will always cherish that gift from God! Christopher revealed so much of his sweet personality during his time here on Earth! While this is not the outcome we wanted, we can clearly see God’s hand in every detail and undeniably feel His comfort and love. We deeply miss Christopher each day that goes by, but we eagerly look forward to the day when God will reunite our family and we all will get to spend eternity together worshipping the Lord! Until then, we find comfort and hope in Christ and His salvation, and we rejoice knowing that Christopher is experiencing all the joys of God’s presence!

I don’t think anything can truly prepare you for the loss of the child. Nothing quite prepares you for the hard conversations with doctors, the difficult decisions to make, and the powerful complex emotions mixed into everything. No one tells you about the emptiness of your arms or the quietness of your home - a quiet void left by the child that should be here. Nothing really, truly prepares you for that. And the only thing that can truly get you through it all is a personal relationship with God. The only Person who can truly bring comfort and hope is Christ. In fact, Christ Himself IS our Hope! We would be so hopelessly lost amidst our suffering without an Anchor for our souls! Only He can take a horrible situation and make something good out of it. Trusting in Him when the world seems flipped upside down is the only way to heal from grief!

Christopher seemingly left our lives as quickly as he had joined it. But we still loved him and cared for him throughout his whole life! Carrying a dying baby was a difficult, heavy emotional burden, but I would carry Christopher all over again because his life mattered so much. Not a day goes by that we don’t think of him and miss him, but we are so grateful to God for Christopher’s life and the time we got with him. It’s hard to understand why things happened the way they did, but I remind myself with Psalm 139 that the creation of Christopher’s eternal soul was more precious than if he never existed and we never experienced this trial at all. God grew us so much through this trial and we pray that He was honored and glorified by Christopher’s earthly life. God has been so gracious to us throughout this whole experience, and He is holding Christopher safe in His arms! I picture Christopher in Heaven praising God and worshipping at Jesus’ feet. I see him fully experiencing the joys of heaven, running around with other boys and girls - maybe even playing with angels. We miss him so much, but I am so thankful he gets to be perfectly healed there instead of suffering here. I’m sure he is anxiously anticipating our arrival in God’s presence just as we anxiously anticipated his arrival here!

Grief is strong, but God is stronger! He will carry you through any trial you face. He will never leave you or forsake you. He will bring you comfort when you rely on Him. “If suffering has brought you closer to God and glory to Him, then it has done its job.” Our suffering is never meaningless in the eyes of God. He promises His comfort and He will bring healing!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith⁠—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire⁠—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” — 1 Peter 1:3-9

When Simon Says Grow reached out to us about making a shadowbox in memory of Christopher, we were so touched! Melinda made a beautiful shadowbox filled with Christopher’s precious mementos. It will be a lifelong treasured keepsake and memory of our son!

~ Caleb & Lauren Friske