Welcome to the Grief and Belief podcast. Hosts David Mickelson and Kori Andrews interview Jenni Theobald, who shares the traumatic story of losing her son, Adam, when she was approximately 25 weeks along in the year 2000. Jenni recounts being on a trip to Las Vegas when she woke up in labor. In the hospital, an ultrasound tech brutally informed her: "Your baby's dead" because there were "no fetal heart tones". Following the loss, Jenni and her husband struggled to process the guilt and grief in a community where pregnancy loss is often "forbidden to talk about".
Jenni explains her difficulty with the term "miscarriage," which felt like an accusation that she had made a "mistake" or done something wrong. She recalls a family member dismissing her pain, saying, "It's just a miscarriage. Why are you upset? It wasn't a real baby". The pregnancy-loss experience caused a huge paradigm shift, leading her to leave her teaching career and focus intently on motherhood, recognizing the power and importance of family.
Ultimately, Jenni found the courage to move forward by leaning into the Savior. She found comfort in the song "I walked today where Jesus walked," realizing she needed to pick up her heavy burdens and keep moving forward, allowing her sorrow to deepen her capacity for joy. She testifies that the Atonement makes broken things whole and that the Lord "backfills where we lack with the spirit and buoy us up".

Resources: I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked

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