168. Marriage, Supporting a Grieving Dad & Parenting a Baby in Heaven with Emily Stangl

This week on the podcast I am honored to be talking with Emily Stangl about her experience navigating marriage after losing her daughter Tilly.  We talk about the challenges she and her husband faced and how they worked through, and are working, through those challenges. Emily shares the ways she grieves differently than her husband and what that practically looks like in their marriage as well as the role that self care played in their healing individually and also as a couple. Emily shares with me all the beautiful ways that she and her husband grieve together and individually, but not only that, she also shares with me how they parent Tilly, their first and only child, now that she is in heaven. Emily gives such practical and intentional and beautiful ways of doing this and I am sure that it will give you freedom in finding ways to mother and parent your baby in heaven too. We also talk about what it looks like to support a grieving dad, especially when he’s different from you and what it looks like to compromise for the sake of grieving together.  It’s a really beautiful conversation that will give you hope in this journey – that there can be joy even here in a marriage that has walked through and experienced the unimaginable. I’m so grateful for Emily and her wisdom and her story and I am sure it is going to bless you.     THIS EPISODE IS DEDICATED TO ERIKA RUSSEL To Erika: Adalynn Paige Neil was loved fiercely for the three days she lived. She is not forgotten. We wish you peace and love and are thinking of you, Caleb, and Adalynn on her birthday. A special thank you to the donor who sponsored this episode – thank you for loving a grieving mom and remembering such an important day. Erika, we honor you and we celebrate and remember Adalynn with you.   QUESTIONS WE DISCUSS IN NO.168 What do you think is the most challenging aspect of navigating the marriage relationship after loss and what advice would you give a grieving couple about how to navigate those challenges? How did you grieve differently and how have you navigated those differences?  You mentioned that one aspect of your grief journey as it related to your mental and emotional health, was discovering that self care looked different for each of you. Tell me what that looked like and why it has been important at navigating grief and the marriage relationship after loss. What advice/wisdom would you give to a grieving couple about this?  What does it look like to parent Tilly now? How do you parent with your husband and what does that look like individually? You mentioned that this can be an opportunity to strengthen your relationship – tell me more about that.  What would you tell friends & family about what it looks like to support a grieving couple (dads often get missed or overlooked)? FREE RESOURCE  For more resources about navigating marriage after the loss of a baby, check out our complete Resource Bundle. You can access that bundle instantly and all the marriage related resources including quick links to our favorite episodes about marriage and a date night idea list for when dating your spouse feels really hard. To get instant access to that bundle head to themorning.com/resourcebundle JOIN OUR FREE ONLINE COMMUNITYwww.themorning.com/community   SHOW NOTESwww.themorning.com/blog/episode168   RATE, REVIEW &  FOLLOW ON APPLE PODCASTSIf you love The Joyful Mourning Podcast, please consider rating and reviewing the show! This helps moms who are grieving to find us a little easier and get that support they need. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know how this episode helped you.