The loss I recently experienced hit differently than others I’ve experienced. I thought that with three kids already in tow, it wouldn’t ache quite this bad. But it has.

I don’t know if it’s because I was further along or because my entire household was over-the-top giddy and excited for this precious new life to enter the world. Perhaps it was the trauma of how everything happened or because I actually gave birth to him and held him.

RELATED: We Lost Our Baby at 17 Weeks Pregnant

Attending my first appointment to confirm the loss was brutal. I was surrounded by a sea of pregnant women. Attending my postpartum appointments in the OBGYN’s office was excruciating, trying to climb and dig out of the pits of sadness and despair just felt impossible in those moments. Once you experience such a loss, it seems like everyone around you is getting their happy ending.

Then God laid something on my heart: Don’t forget her.

The one who was never able to get pregnant. Don’t forget her. The one who has been trying for years. Don’t forget her. The one who is so desperately yearning for that moment of becoming a mother. Don’t forget her.

The one who finds out she is pregnant after loss and is so afraid of what the next appointment might reveal. Don’t forget her. The one who realized that families can be built in many different ways. Don’t forget her.

RELATED: Pregnancy Loss is a Part of Me Now

The ones suffering in silence and crying in doctor’s offices. I can’t forget her. To anyone who has experienced such loss, I am so very sorry. To anyone currently experiencing such loss, I am so very sorry.

I pray you feel seen today. I am praying for your story today. I am praying for a rainbow after the storm today—whatever that might look like. I won’t forget you.

Loss comes in many forms, but we will never know the toll it takes on someone’s heart, so let’s just love people a little more.

Originally published on the author’s blog