Joy in the Morning Designs started 9 years ago when my daughter Kamari Morning was born. She is our "rainbow" baby, a child born after a loss.

Our first son Asher Finn was stillborn at 40 weeks on 10/09/11. I really wanted a memorial necklace after Asher died and the only one we found was the $500 piece that the funeral home offered to make. It was beautiful, but I knew that young families like ours, who have just paid for a funeral for their child, could never afford that.

I founded Held Your Whole Life, Inc at Christmas 2011, a non-profit that created personalized hand stamped jewelry for grieving moms and dads. We sadly grew very quickly since 1 in 4 mama's know the pain of not getting to bring their baby home from the hospital. In 6 years time we had made and shipped close to 10,000 free memorial gifts worldwide!

I have always been a creative person, I made my own wedding dress 11 years ago and love beading and painting. But HYWL challenged me to learn metal work and hand stamping. Making jewelry for other families like ours helped me navigate the messy road of grief and healing. I started creating my own designs for friends and family as a way to make a little income while I volunteered over 40 hours a week for Held.

Joy in the Morning comes from the verse in Psalm 30, "though the sorrow may last through the night, JOY comes in the morning". We read this verse at our son's funeral, and clung to it for hope and healing. We now have 2 rainbows, Kamari and Judah, who challenge me every day to live in color and take daring adventures.

In 2016, my husband Jim and I started pursing minimalism and a simpler life for our family. We sold our "American Dream" house and over half of our possessions to get out of debt and focus more on time with our kiddos. During this year, I realized that I needed to let go of HYWL as it had served it's purpose for my life. Our board found an amazing mom in Montana to take it over and she is continuing our mission with such grace and love.

I am now able to pursue my personal business more and help contribute to our family's income as a stay at home mom. Your purchase helps me take little adventures with my kids and pay for things like lessons and sports and organic fabric to make them sustainable clothing.

My inspiration comes from nature; the woods, rivers and mountains that we are blessed to call home. We have lived in the mountains of Glacier National Park Montana, just outside the entrance to Yellowstone, Wyoming, and now at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains in Sheridan, Wyoming.

I hope that you will find something here that you can wear on your next hike, climb or paddle through our great wildernesses and mountain ranges.

Lots of love,

Larisa