From heartache to a full heart: Lori Beth Blaney, Class of 1988.

In December 2006, Lori Beth Blaney, Class of 1988, was in a Georgia hospital. She and her family had been in a car accident, hit head-on by a teenager from the local high school. Everyone made it out alive except for one: Lori Beth’s unborn daughter, whom she and her husband would later name Rachel.

The day after the accident, in an almost unspeakable state of grief, Lori Beth had to deliver her stillborn baby. After the birth, she didn’t see much of the hospital staff — they seemed to avoid her. No one looked to ease her despair, and she was left alone without much help to deal with her loss.

“I felt like I had a hole that needed to be filled,” she says.

As time passed and Lori Beth’s sorrow threatened to swallow her up, she felt God laying something on her heart. She was painfully aware of the lack of support for mothers in her situation and felt God leading her to do something about it.

“I didn’t want to do it at first,” Lori Beth says of creating Rachel’s Gift, the faith-based nonprofit that would emerge in 2008. “I’m more of a worker bee and not one to start something from scratch.”

But after much lost sleep and time spent arguing with God, Lori Beth knew what she was supposed to do.

She started by reaching out to other moms dealing with the loss of an infant, women who felt isolated during the grieving process. She did extensive research and connected with counselors and nurses to help understand how best to work with parents in crisis.

Four years later, Rachel’s Gift now works with seven (soon to be eight) Georgia hospitals to provide grief assistance for parents and families experiencing infant loss. It also helps train nurses and caregivers to address issues that families face while dealing with such tragic situations.


During the development process, God sent a lot of people Lori Beth’s way. One of them was Beth Lowe, also a member of the Bible Institute’s Class of 1988.

Beth found Lori Beth on Facebook not long after she started Rachel’s Gift. Beth and her husband, Ellis, another Bible Institute alum, had dealt with losses of their own and felt the same lack of person-to-person support.

“I saw (Rachel’s Gift) as a really unique opportunity to reach out to someone who is hurting and share Christ’s love,” Beth says.

Beth volunteers as a crisis companion through Rachel’s Gift. As advocates for parents, Beth and other volunteers are trained to navigate the initial shock of losing a child and to encourage parents to bond with their infants.

Perhaps one of the most important things Rachel’s Gift provides is a keepsake package for parents. These “grieving tools,” as Lori Beth calls them, usually include a plaster imprint of the baby’s hands and feet, outfits, and blankets sewn by volunteers and remembrance photographs.

“Usually when people lose family members, they have keepsakes like gifts, pictures, and memories to help them grieve,” Lori Beth says, “but sonograms are about all you have for babies.”

Lori Beth says it has been amazing to watch mothers heal and return to Rachel’s Gift seeking volunteer positions. But her heart breaks for families who do not put their hope in the Lord.

“I see many families who have no faith but keep returning for support groups,” she says. “We’re sowing seeds.”

Although emotional support is the focus of Rachel’s Gift — volunteers only witness to mothers when invited — Lori Beth is excited to see some of her non-Christian families show a growing interest in Christ. She looks back on her time at the Bible Institute as preparation for what lay ahead.

“I feel like it gave me a strong foundation for my life and a compass as to its focus,” she says.

As Lori Beth considers the families with whom she works, she says she often thinks of 1 Corinthians 1:3-5, which speaks to the grace and peace Christians are given through Christ. She feels that God has given her Rachel’s Gift to help heal the hole in her own heart.

“People think that (the name is) supposed to signify Rachel’s gift to grieving parents,” she says, “but really, it is God’s gift to me.”