Lost Among The Daisies

The inspiration for this photograph came from the first scene of the children's Disney classic Alice In Wonderland. Alice sings a song to her cat. You can watch the clip here.

These flowers are growing out of control in my beautiful Nan's garden. She always sends me home with clippings.

I am so thankful that Spring has finally arrived.

Pixie Dust

One of the sweetest joys about being a mother to three daughters is that I can watch my girls sprinkle the pixie dust that the fairies left them at their bedroom windowsill.

First Ever Blog Giveaway

To kick off my new blog I am celebrating with a special giveaway.

I will be giving away 3 Personalized Beach Butterfly Photograph Sets

Below is an example of the photograph set.




If you win one you will be able to choose what name you would like on the wing of your butterfly plus the wording of your choice for the second image.

I will email these images to you in a high resolution jpeg format.

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is "like" me on facebook or if you don't have a facebook account you can "Follow" me (hate that word by the way - I have chosen "Readers" rather than "Followers"!) on my right hand sidebar underneath CarlyMarie Readers.

After you have done that please leave me a comment here or on my facebook page with the name you would choose to have written on the wing of the butterfly.

Good Luck everyone. We are going to print out all the entries and place them into one of Christian's special memory boxes. Each of my Tinkerbells will then pick one name out of the box each :) I will be announcing the winners tomorrow!

Love and peace,

October 15th Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Sunset Ceremony

Welcome to my new space. It is a breath of fresh air for me. Something that I have really been longing for. This place will be somewhere for me to write about anything that is on my heart. I feel as though the heavy grief that once consumed me is now lifting and leaving my body. I will always live with grief but he is not holding me so tight anymore. I know this because in the last year I have felt true happiness and I have not felt guilty for it.

I want to celebrate the wonderful life that I have. I will do that here. I hope this place is a breath of fresh air for you too no matter where you are at in your life or if you are babylost or not.

I can't think of a more beautiful moment in time to write about for my first post here other than the beach remembrance ceremony that we held down at Mullaloo Beach for October 15th Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.

I wanted to do this last year with my gorgeous friend Sarah who founded Whispered Support with me. It wasn''t possible only because I was pregnant with Ocea and was experiencing some complications.

I'm an independent type of girl, I don't like to ask for help but as I envisioned the evening in my mind it became apparent very quickly that I would not be able to do it all on my own. This year I asked some of my gorgeous girlfriends to help me organize the day with me. The ceremony would not have been possible without the help of following gorgeous girls, Amy, Caoilfhionn (pronounced Keelin :) ), Emma, Holly and Sarah.



The day of the ceremony was gorgeous. The prettiest clouds I have ever seen filled the sky throughout the day. As I was laying out the back on the grass I noticed a face in the clouds. I raced in to grab Morgan AKA my camera. I took some shots and when I came inside to look at them I felt chills come over my body. This was his face. It looked just like him. I remembering whispering to myself "Christian is that really you?" The rest of the day was filled with beautiful moments. I got to share them with many of my beautiful friends who were missing their own babies.

I asked my dear friend Andy from Gormaymax Photography if he would be able to come down and take photos on the evening as I would be too busy hosting the event to take any photos myself.

Andy is one of a kind. This man who I have done nothing for in all the time that I have known him has given my family and I so much. He came down on the evening and took the most beautiful photographs. He refused to be paid for his time and services, "That is what friends are for" He said to me.

We had many people come to remember their children. I was so honoured and humbled that so many people would come to send the evening at the beach.

We released 50 white balloons and as we let go of them they drifted out to sea and disappeared into the sunset. After the balloon release we called the babies and childrens names out and their families came forward and gave some petals each to the sea. It was at that art of the ceremony that bright white lights started appearing around the families. You can see a couple of them in this photo below and no, that is not the moon.

Out of all the years Andy has been photographing the beach he never once saw anything like this appear in any of his photos. Amazing to think they only started appearing when I started calling out the names.

I have put some of the photos that Andy took below for you to see. You can find more at his website by clicking here.

Me just before the ceremony started.

The Program for the evening.


These little sand and seashell beach gift bags were given out to everyone to keep in their own childs memory box. It was such a joy for me to put them all together.


I read aloud this beautiful poem by Maya Hayden-Evans. Maya wrote this poem for me a few months ago. It is one of the most beautiful poems I have ever read.
You can read the full poem here. We gave a copy of these two images to everyone that came to the ceremony.

The following photos were all taken by Andy.


We released white balloons to represent our children that are now free pure spirits.


We watched the white balloons disappear into the sunset.


The sky was amazing.


Remembering a sister


Charlotte's parents.


Amy honouring her miscarried babies Hope, Love and Grace


Caoilfhionn remembering her beloved son Tadgh


Whenever I am feeling really sad...

I am blessed enough to always have someone who is willing to share my sorrow with me.

My beautiful team and I stood on the beach together watching a balloons fade out into the sunset and we all were so in awe of how the evening unfolded. It was simply perfect and more than I ever could have hoped for.

Christian will be 4 in January. The sadness does still creep up on me. It even catches me out of the blue like on the weekend when we met u with a new friend of ours. I listened to his daughter's story and could not hold back my tears. I was so heartbroken for him and his beautiful wife and it hit me all over again that this happened to us too.

Most days now I am just in awe and in wonder of death. Is that macarb? I mean maybe I am not so in awe of death but more its process and what actually does happen to us as our earthly life leaves our bodies.

I hope it is amazing. I hope it magical.

The Grief Effect FAQ

My friend's baby just died what can I do to help?

Please click here.

Dealing with comments and questions about the death of your baby.

Please click here.

Do you have any helpful information for grieving Fathers?

Please click here.

I am pregnant again after losing our baby do you have anything information to help me?

Please click here.

What helped you the most in your grieving process?

Please click here.

Do you have any information to help us plan a funeral/memorial service for our child?

Please click here.

Do you know any good books for grieving siblings?

Please click here.

Do you know any good books to help us through our grief?

Please click here.

I am a Health Care Professional. Do you have any information on how I can be of more help in a situation where a patient's baby dies?

Please click here.

What is a shrine and how can I make one for my child?

Please click here.

Can you help us with any ideas of what we can do for our childs birthday/anniversary?

Please click here.

Butterfly Beach FAQ

Can I request a butterfly to be drawn before I make a payment?

Unfortunately because the butterflies take a lot of time to drawn we can only take requests through prepaid orders.

Where can I order a butterfly from?

Please click here to see all of our Beach Butterflies

What is the difference between a Gallery Butterfly and a Personalized Butterfly?

Gallery Butterflies are pre-drawn butterflies.

Personalized Butterflies are original one off drawings with your choice of name.

To Write Their Names In The Sand FAQ

When will you next be taking name requests?

We will update on when we are next taking requests here.

How much does it cost to have my childs name written in the sand?

Having your childs name written in the sand is a free service. We will write their name, photograph it at sunset and then create a memorial post for them on the memorial website. Having this memorial post is a gift from us to you in memory of our son Christian. If you like the photograph and would like to purchase the high resolution image in a jpeg format which is emailed to you for $20 AUS. This can all be done at the website.

What is the Rainbow Wait List?

When you come to the website to make your name request you childs name will go onto our Rainbow Wait List. You will then be able to see where your childs name is on the wait list and have a good indication of when we will be able to write their name. If your childs name disappears off the list you will know that it has been written and up on the website.

Do you write names for adults that have died too?

This memorial site is just for children. We are happy to write names from conception up until mid 20's.


When will you next be taking name requests?

We will update on when we are next taking requests here.


Where do I go to find my child's name on the memorial page?

You can Google To Write Their Names In The Sand and your childs name.
Alternatively you can do a search by looking through the website archive on the left hand side of the page. You will need to know the month your childs name was written.

How young does my child have to be to have their name written in the sand?

We have not placed an age limit on the page. We are happy to write names for babies from conception up to late teenage to young adult years. As much as we would love to write names for adults we simply do not have the time.

Do you re write children's names if they have already been requested previously or do you put up the same one that has been written before?

We write each name as they are requested. We want everyone to have their very own photo. It does not matter if your child's name had been previously requested. Each person is unique in their own way and so is each photo.

How long will it take to have my child's name written?

Usually we will have it written for you within 2 weeks. Sometimes it may take a little longer depending on the weather conditions and how many requests we are receiving at the time.

Which beach do you write all of the names at?

Mullaloo Point Beach, Western Australia

Carly Marie's Family

Have you met my family?

I am so blessed.


This is Sam holding our youngest. We have been married since September 2006. He is cool. I love him. Sam is quiet. He is humble and respectful to everyone. In saying that, when he is around his girls he is a big kid and he completely drives me up the wall when he decides that the best thing to do at 8pm is to run around and play chasey with the girls. Arrrggghhh!!!!


This is Scarlett. She is our first born. Isn't she gorgeous? Scarlett made a traumatic entrance into our world which left her in NICU for the first few days of her life as she was unable to breath on her own. Thankfully this little girl grew stronger and after a little while she was able to come home with us. Scarlett expresses herself through art. Her favourite things in the world are Dinosaurs, Drawing, Tinkerbell and Cooking.


This is Christian. Where? You ask. Well, he is standing just beyond the colours of that sunset. He meets me at the beach almost every night. We only had Christian with us for a matter of hours on January 26th 2007 as his soul left this world before he could take a breath of air. We have actual photos of him but they are not how I remember him and therefore I do not look at them very often. Christian has and will continue to leave the most incredible mark on this world. He is one of the main reasons why my life is as amazing as it is.


This is River. She was born 1 year and 4 days after Christian came and left. Seriously this kid is nuts. I love her to bits. Sure I could have ut up a pic of her looking all pretty and angelic but this photo sums up her personality perfectly. She is naughty, funny (hilarious actually) ADVENTUROUS (3 broken bones before her was 19 months old) Beautiful and cuddly. She gives the best hugs in the history of best hugs. River gave me back my hope.


This is Ocea (pronounced Osha) She is our youngest, born in December 2009. I have posted a photo of her looking like an angel because she is just that. A little bright spark that lights up the room as soon as she comes into it. On the week I fell pregnant with Ocea I saw dolphins at the beach on 3 nights. It was the first time I had ever seen them down there. I knew it meant something special was on the horizon for us and so that is why we named her after the ocean.

So there they are. My family. My beautiful, beautiful family.

Carly Marie's Hopes and Dreams

The Gallery

Please click on the image above to enter my gallery.

Thank you for visiting - Enjoy!

If you are a newly bereaved parent, family member or friend you may find The Grief Effect of some help to you. Please click on the image above to visit the website.

Wishing you peace for this road.

My Work In The Babylost Community

If you saw my family and I at the beach you would think we are a family of five. Well, we are actually a family of six.

After dreaming of my son for the first time since we said goodbye to him forever on Australia Day, January 26th 2007 I started a beach memorial website for children called To Write Their Names In The Sand. I dreamed I saw my son writing his name in the sand on one of Heaven's beaches. This simple dream completely changed my life.

Since August 2008 I have written over 10,000 childrens names in the sand for their families and friends who are missing them so deeply. Most of my sunsets are now spent on the shore of Mullaloo Point Beach Western Australia.

I have a deep passion for helping those who have suffered through pregnancy loss, termination of pregnancy, stillbirth, infant loss and child loss.

It is my biggest hope that my websites can be a source of comfort for those whose lives have been shattered by the death of their child/ren.

You can see all of my work in the Babylost Community at The Grief Effect.

About Carly Marie

Welcome to CarlyMarie Project Heal.

After experiencing the stillbirth of our beautiful son Christian our world ended. After 18 months of trying to make sense of the cruelness that was the reality of our lives I dreamed of our son for the first time. I was walking along a beautiful beach. Up ahead of me were three young children. Two boys and a girl. They were too young to be by themselves, especially by the sea. I could see that they were drawing in the sand with pieces of driftwood. As I got closer to them they skipped off up into the sand dunes. I could hear them laughing as they disappeared from my site.

As I got to the point where they had been drawing I saw that they had written their names in the sand. The names read Noah, Christian and Bella. It was only then that I realized that I had dreamed of our son. For the first time since his fatal diagnosis I felt true peace again in my heart. He was okay. He was more than okay. He was living a full and amazing life on Heaven's Beach and he was with his friends who had also left their families too soon.

This dream inspired me to visit the beach and write Christian's name. On August 19th 2008 To Write Their Names In The Sand was born and our lives were changed again forever. Since that day back in the Winter of 2008 0ver 10,500 childrens names have been written in the sand at sunset on Christian's Beach.

Over the last few years I have felt led to help others walking the road of pregnancy loss, infant loss and child loss. My family and I have created three international days for bereaved families. Babylost Mothers Day, Babylost Fathers Day and August 19th - Day of Hope.

We have many projects all designed to help those walking this road.

You can visit all of our projects by clicking on our PROJECTS tab at the top of this page.

Welcome