**Trigger Warning** When you are hurting, it can be difficult to believe that God would use your pain for good. In early 2014, Ashley Opliger was struggling with her faith, worrying about her unborn child, and wondering why she was not seeing answers to her constant prayers. Ultimately, her baby girl, Bridget, was stillborn at 24 weeks gestation.

IF LOSS OR GRIEF IS PART OF YOUR STORY, THIS IS THE EPISODE FOR YOU.

Ashley’s mother brought a hand-knit cradle to the hospital, made specifically for holding such a tiny baby, and God used it to shift Ashley’s trust in Him even in the wake of her deepest loss.

In the year following their loss, Ashley realized there was a need for hospitals and bereaved families to have a dignified, functional way to hold tiny babies born into heaven in the second trimester. She left her career as a speech-language pathologist and started the ministry of Bridget’s Cradles in her daughter’s empty nursery.

Today, Ashley is the President and Executive Director of Bridget’s Cradles, a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Wichita, Kansas. Bridget’s Cradles serves hospitals in all 50 states and comforts more than 26,000 bereaved families each year. Ashley’s God-shaped dream is for women to find faith to embrace a beautiful, broken life.

Bridget’s Cradles not only provides tens of thousands of volunteer-knit or crocheted cradles for bereaved families each year but also offers support groups and resources for families grieving the loss of a baby.

Listen as Ashley talks about how God used her suffering in order that other moms and families like hers can also be comforted in their loss. Other lessons to glean from this conversation with Ashley:

Trust not in your own wisdom,
There is no need to worry about the outcomes of your dream,
God doesn’t waste anything we go through, and
Our job is to serve Him through small acts of obedience.

MORE ABOUT ASHLEY:

Ashley Opliger is married to Matt and they have three children: Bridget (in heaven), Branton, and Brenner who arrived most recently in January 2021.

CONNECT WITH ASHLEY:

Website || Instagram || Facebook

CONNECT WITH BRIDGET’S CRADLES:

Website || Instagram || Facebook

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

More about Bridget’s Cradles >>

2020 Wave of Light Remembrance Drive (video)
Hope Gathering Online Support Group
Volunteering for Bridget’s Cradles
Grieving & Healing Resources
Caring for Grieving Families

Scripture:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

~ 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NIV)

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.
But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

~ John 16:33 (ESV).