“I just want to stop hurting so bad!”
“I will never get past this!”
“No one understands why I am still a mess!”
These are all statements I have heard from grieving parents. From someone who has been through the suffocating darkness caused by the death of my daughter, I can tell you that our grief doesn’t end in weeks, or months, or even years.
When my daughter, Becca, died, I wanted God to just take me from this earth. At the same time, I didn’t want to live out the rest of my life in a shell just waiting for my turn to die. If I had to stay here, I wanted to be able to live without the pain that can’t even be put into words. I didn’t know if that was possible, much less how.
I eventually realized that learning to live without our child is like learning 
how to live with an amputation.
Our daughter had her leg amputated at only three years old (due to bone cancer), so I know a little bit of what that is like. I watched her having to deal with that amputation every day, but I also watched her learn how to live a full life with that part of her body missing.
I allowed a seed of hope to be planted in the darkness of my soul, and I learned how to water and nurture that seed until it grew, not only into a blooming flower of a life worth living again, but one that now provides life for others.
My life doesn’t look the same, as I will never be the person I was before Becca died. But I have learned how to live a fulfilled life with meaning again, with that part of me missing.
It doesn’t matter how little or how much time has gone by since the death of your child, the struggle is real. And often it seems to get worse before it gets better. That is NORMAL. But it doesn’t have to continue to be normal for you.
As I was in the darkest part of my grief, God began giving me tools to help me climb out of the suffocating pit, and back onto the path of life. He then began bringing other grieving parents into my life who began looking to me for the hope, light and life I had found through His love and guidance.
This led me to write the book When Tragedy Strikes: Rebuilding Your Life with Hope and Healing After the Death of Your Child. So many parents have shared with me how this book brought light back into their suffocating darkness.
You have been a lifeline of light in darkness to me and you have reminded me to cry when the anger threatened to turn to bitterness - Hannah L.
My son's death was a compete traumatic shock and I was angry at God. Laura speaks of this in her book and offered the hope I desperately needed. As I ride the waves of grief, I find I reach for the book over and over again. - Lisa A.
This has been a life altering experience to just absorb the content with every word. Laura's honesty is at times raw and extremely inspiring. I connected on so many levels. - Celeste L.
I've read many books about grief and losing a child, but this book by far has helped me the most. I find myself re-reading it…This book has helped me coming closer to God and trust him more. It has helped restore my faith and to not be so angry about my son being gone. - Amy G.
This book is nothing short of a miracle! … The darkness in my soul has at times been riveting, overwhelming and impossible to dredge through. Laura Diehl has put together words of healing for my wounded heart. - Amazon customer
Click here to learn more about the book.
Many readers have asked about resources they could use to implement in their own lives what they learned in this book or have asked how they can work with me personally, as they rebuild their lives.
PRESENTING The Rebuilding Your Life Courses!
That is why the Rebuilding Your Life After Child Loss guidance courses for bereaved parents were put together. They are an extension of the award-winning book When Tragedy Strikes and gives those parents the extra help they are looking for, based on what they want and need.
There are three different video/audio courses, based on where you are in your grief journey, giving you somewhat of a blueprint on how to move forward, rebuilding your life with hope and purpose.
Guidance Course One: How Do I Even Start to Rebuild My Life?
This course walks you through some of the most difficult beginning parts of the journey for a grieving parent and helps you start the process of rebuilding your life with hope and healing.
- Module One – Laying the Foundation (Six Sessions) This covers a very difficult but extremely important topic of laying the foundation of forgiveness. Unforgiveness will keep you stuck, but there are things you can do to help forgive those you may feel are unforgivable, including yourself, the person responsible for your child’s death, and God.
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Module Two – Taking Care of Yourself (Six Sessions) We are three-part beings; spirit, soul and body. All three of these areas needs special attention in our deep grief. The three parts are addressed separately, and suggestions are made for strengthening each one, along with showing how they are also intertwined and affect each other.
Guidance Course Two: Working Through the Darkness
This course deals with some of the major issues we need to work through to get past the suffocating darkness after the death of our child. Being able to move toward light and hope will put you on the path to having meaning and purpose in your life once again. It is a lot of work to get there, and this course will be a valuable tool to help you.
- Module One - The Difficult Ripple Effects (Four Sessions) We know our loss will affect us deeply for the rest of our lives, and it hurts when family and friends don’t understand why we are still such a mess. How do we deal with these unexpected ripple effects?
- Module Two - Your Changed Identity (Four Sessions) The death of our child changes who we are to our very core. Who am I now, and how can I function without my child? This module helps you begin to find your own personal answers to these common questions after the death of our child
- Module Three - How Can I Ever Trust God Again? (Four Sessions) Many parents have their faith in God shattered after the death of their child. But this trust can be rebuilt, and the new fears you now struggle with can be dealt with as well. Trusting God again is crucial, and this module will give you guidance in how to move in that direction
Guidance Course Three: Looking Toward My Future
This course will give you hope that you can live a life of meaning and purpose again, not in spite of your child’s death, but because of his or her life! It will also help you move more quickly in that direction.
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Module One - I Don’t Think I Can Ever Be Happy Again (Four Sessions)When we lose our child, we truly believe it will be impossible to ever enjoy life again. While there will always be an ache in our hearts, this part of the course shows you how to “move the needle,” making it possible to eventually have a life with hope, purpose and even joy once again.
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Module Two Finding Meaning, Purpose and a Life Worth Living (Four Sessions) As grieving parents, we can remain stuck in the darkness, living in the shell of our bodies, just waiting to die and join our child. This module gives you needed tools to figure out what your purpose in life is now, to be able to live a full and productive life. And this is not in spite of your child’s death, but in a way that honors his or her life.
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FREE BONUS MODULE – Overview of Grief and the Enneagram (Two Sessions)
All three courses come with the following:
FIRST BONUS: Each course comes with an eBook copy of the multiple award-winning book When Tragedy Strikes.
SECOND BONUS: Each student is invited to a private Facebook community where you have direct access to me (Laura) as this is the Facebook page where I “hang out” with other parents who have lost a child. Interaction with the other students is another benefit of this Facebook community, because we are all broken, bereaved parents who are connected by some level of faith in God, including those whose faith has been shattered.
We answer each other’s questions, weep with those who are weeping and rejoice in each other’s victories (no matter how small) as we also remember our children together. It is a safe place with no judgement or shame, no matter how your child died, or where you are (emotionally or spiritually) on your grief journey.
While the process of grief cannot be hurried, we can learn how to take steps, no matter how small, making sure we keep moving forward instead of remaining stuck in the pain and darkness of our horrific loss.
Take me to the Rebuilding Your Life Guidance Courses
You have a choice.
You can choose to continue to struggle in your darkness alone, or you can choose to let someone who has been right where you are walk with you, guiding you out of the darkness and back to that place of hope, light and purpose once again, helping you rebuild your life after the death of your child.
As parents who have lost a child from this earth, we will never be the same. But that doesn’t mean we can’t live a life with hope, purpose and meaning again. And this is not in spite of our child’s death, but because of our child’s life and the deep love we still have for them.
I look forward to connecting with you in the Rebuilding Your Life Guidance Courses and meeting you in our Facebook community, as we travel this unwanted path together.
About the instructor: After the death of their 
oldest daughter, Laura Diehl, along with her husband, Dave, founded Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) and travel full time in their Hope Mobile (a 38-foot motor home) providing support and resources to grieving parents on their difficult journey, including local weekend retreats. Laura hosts the weekly Grieving Parents Sharing Hope podcast and is also a singer and national speaker. She has written several books, including the multiple award winning When Tragedy Strikes: Rebuilding Your Life with Hope and Healing After the Death of Your Child (Morgan James Publishing, New York).
Dave and Laura’s home base is in Southern Wisconsin and are the parents of 5 adult children (including Becca who has already received her promotion to heaven) and are blessed with seven grandchildren.
