Necklace // Top: ASOS, sold out (similar)
Why do we put so much value in things, especially when it comes to motherhood? I do it. I totally consider myself a borderline hoarder, and if I didn’t like to see my floor and have people over, I’d probably keep every little thing I’ve ever been given. Certain items hold more weight and importance than others, and one of those is a necklace my mom wore when she was young. It’s a gold silhouette of a girl’s face with her name hand-engraved on one side and her birthday on the other. Since my daughter Naomi was named after her, I wore it to keep them both close to my heart. I engraved my Naomi’s birthday under my mom’s.
It’s hard to know where to begin to tell this story because it’s still very raw. I never, ever take that necklace off. Not to shower, not to work out, never. It is one of my most prized possessions.

The  morning of my c-section with Tova was a bit of a blur. I went in at 5:30 in the morning expecting my doctor to perform a version on me, followed by an induction. That was my birth plan. After a few minutes of attempting the version, I cried uncle. Even with my epidural, it was extremely painful and scary, and I knew I couldn’t handle anymore. I also knew I was having that baby that day one way or another, so c-section it was. I’m not 100% sure about this, but I think I overheard the doctor and nurses whispering about heart rates dropping, and within a matter of minutes, I was being wheeled into the operating room to have my baby.

Right before the procedure, one of the nurses noticed I still had my necklace on. I didn’t even have time to remove it in my room.

She took it off me and handed it to my husband, who put it in his pocket.

The surgery went off without a hitch, and we met our beautiful Tova Hannah a few minutes later. She was a dream come true.

The next day, I realized I wasn’t wearing my necklace and asked my husband to put it back on me, and that’s when we realized: the necklace wasn’t in his pocket. He searched the jeans he had been wearing. We tore the room apart. We had every doctor and nurse on the floor looking for it. We had the laundry team digging through sheets and looking in washing machines.

We never found it.

The day we were scheduled to leave the hospital, it hit me that I was never going to see that necklace again and I completely lost it. Having lost my mom 14 years ago, there are very few things I still have of hers that I really and truly treasure, and that was one of them. Typing it now still brings me back to that place of shock and disbelief that something so important could just be gone.

When my friend Jessica, the founder and designer of jewelry line Mint & Birch reached out to me about designing a custom necklace for me that represented motherhood and my two girls, I jumped at the chance. Nothing is ever going to replace that special necklace of mine, but now I have something that symbolizes both girls and allows me to keep them both close to my heart. Her line Mint & Birch features everything from hand-stamped bars to beautiful nests like the one I’m wearing, which has two pink pearls in it, representing Naomi and Tova.

It’s easy to put too much value in things, and it’s easy to forget that what’s most important is the health and well-being of our babies. I may never fully get over losing that necklace, but in the end, I know that my two kids are really my prized possessions.

Have a wonderful Mother’s Day! xo