The Village Retreat 2024
The Village of Stillborn Mamas - 6th Annual Retreat
This year, we welcomed four new stillborn mamas and their babies into The Village Retreat community.
These brave women traveled from OK, IN and NC to share their stories, make connections, rest, to be loved on and to honor their babies.
This immersive experience is always hard to describe with words and pictures, nothing seems to do it justice. To take your deepest wound, and travel to a space where you open it up for all to see. I’ve never seen such sadness, bravery and love all in one space.
There are parts of the retreat that are the same every year, and there is always something different about each one.
This year, we were able to raise enough support to book the largest house we’ve ever had. The extra space allowed us to invite several of the Mamas who had attended past retreats with us to come back and pour into these new women.
Being able to connect again and show these new women how this bond that forms during the retreat is real and never-ending was another level of healing I saw this year.
Hearing what the Mamas had to say…
Meredith Goben, Mama to Savannah
“What a meaningful weekend spent with women who truly understand this journey. Losing a baby can feel isolating, but finding this “Village” has been an incredible blessing.
Going into the weekend, I felt nervous about spending time with strangers, but we connected almost instantly. The women who welcomed us, new members of the Village, were so warm, compassionate, and thoughtful.
This weekend gave me the space to laugh, cry, and openly share about my daughter, who so often gets left out of everyday conversations. Traveling all the way from Oklahoma to the beach in North Carolina was worth every mile, and the friendships I made feel like they’ll last a lifetime.
A heartfelt thank you to Paige and Armin for taking such good care of us and creating such a safe, nurturing space. I will carry this experience with me forever.”
Ashley Scoggins, Mama to Sadie Ann
This was my first time at The Village Retreat. My friend who leads the support group I attend monthly told me about it this summer. She thought I would really enjoy it and sent me the link to sign up as soon as it was available. I signed up right away with no idea of what I was getting into.
The retreat was a two and a half hour drive from home. Anxious doesn’t even scratch the surface of what I was feeling on that drive alone. The whole way I kept thinking “you are crazy. You don’t know these people. Go home.” I arrived at the retreat and was immediately greeted as if we were old friends.
The as amount of support, love, and understanding I received that weekend was completely overwhelming. Hearing stories so different and some so similar to my own was healing. Telling my story to a group of strangers but knowing without question that they understood every feeling I had created a bond I didn’t know I needed. Being around a group on moms who care for you simply out of the kindness of their hearts is mind blowing.
The week following the retreat was my daughter Sadie’s birthday. It has been three years since her birthday/stillbirth day. I grieved hard that day. The group of women I met just five days prior poured out so much love and helped me celebrate her in the sweetest way, some from a hundred or even a thousand miles away.
TThe Village is truly a blessing in my life. I can’t thank Paige enough for leading this group. Even as heartbreaking and unfair our circumstances are surrounding the loss of our sweet babies, the love, the wonderful and continuous love from The Village is simply amazing. These mothers of loss don’t have to support other mothers. They could walk it alone. But they choose to use their tragedy as a testimony, providing others with a safe space to grieve and grow. And for that I am thankful. The Village, the mothers and each of their babies, will always hold a special place in my heart.
Katie Brown, Mama to Henry Louis
I was nervous coming into the retreat even though I had heard great things about it from other loss mamas. I was scared of the feelings that would come for me. My loss happened 6 years ago, which feels impossible to believe, and I had put my grief on the back burner. I still remembered my baby every day, but I kept my feelings bottled up. I shared my story less and less often.
Curated and thoughtful are the words I would use to describe the retreat. I loved that these women I had never met before welcomed me into The Village with open arms - literally meeting me at my car when I arrived with hugs.
Every detail was so beautifully thought through. When I walked into my room for the first time I cried. Center on the bed was my favorite photo of my son, framed on a canvas print. There were gifts with his name on it on the nightstands, and beautiful flowers on the dresser. It was so lovely, and the love for my baby, so loved and so missed, made my heart swell. Each item was chosen to make known that my baby mattered and was cherished, and to welcome me into The Village.
The weekend was a nice balance of planned activities and time to relax, get to know each other, and share about our babies. There were 3 other new-to-The-Village women like me, and also a lot of returning women from previous retreats. Although Paige made it clear there was no pressure to share our stories if we weren’t comfortable, she made sure we each had the space and time in the schedule to do so. She also made sure we knew when our spot was coming up so we weren’t taken off guard. I really appreciated that.
My favorite moments of the retreat were the meals (so delicious) and downtimes when we just talked. It was during those moments where the prior attendees shared their own stories, and it often came up naturally in conversation sitting around the living room eating cookies or around the fire outside. I was shocked to hear 3 different mamas had a story so similar to mine it gave me goosebumps. I hadn’t personally met anyone else in the last 6 years who shared a story so closely with mine before. Each of these moments made me feel less alone in my pain.
I walked into the retreat as a stranger, but I left with a whole Village in my heart. Losing a baby isn’t just hard in the moment. It’s hard every day after, because you have to keep on living and seeing the empty places they should be. Around the table at Christmas, in the family photos, first day of school, etc. The retreat held space to share all those feelings without judgement, because everyone there just got it. I didn’t have to over-explain myself or be afraid someone would think it weird.
I also left feeling incredibly inspired by these women to recreate that feeling in my own community. On the last morning the mamas that had attended previous retreats shared gifts with the new women. I want to give back like that, too. It really reminded me of a quote by Stephanie Sparkles “I love when people that have been through hell walk out of the flames carrying buckets of water for those still consumed by the fire.”
Lindsay Cash, Mama to Jones Henry
It was such a gift to be able to come on the village retreat and the fact that everything was paid for was truly amazing. Losing a baby involves paying off hospital bills that represent the worst and most traumatic day of your life, and later weighing the cost/benefits of paying to see a counselor or other specialists to help you work through the trauma and grief. It is so refreshing to be able to go on a trip like this and not have to count the cost financially.
Paige has created such a special & relaxing environment for the retreat. The pace and activities of the weekend make space for us to open up our grief and sadness but also space for us to laugh, connect and unwind. There is no pressure on the weekend to be anything more than what we need- a place to remember and honor our babies. It was so touching to walk into my room on the first night and see a print of me holding my baby and numerous keepsakes with his name written on them. Just to know that you and your baby are seen is such a gift. After losing my baby less than 6 months before the retreat and still being so raw in my grief, It was so powerful to look around and see a room full of women who were 2 or 3 or 30 years out from their loss - to seem them talking, laughing, crying and carrying on with their life- but always carrying their baby in their heart- gave me hope for the future.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way.
The 7th annual The Village Retreat will be held November 7-9, 2025 in Murrells Inlet, SC. We are already praying for the Mamas who will choose to bravely join us and share their stories.
