Contestant's Case to Win

My long time friend Laura Racanelli and I are co-founders of www.OurHopePlace.com (website) and www.OurHopePlace.wordpress.com (blog).

Based on our own personal experience we have created www.OurHopePlace.com, a business dedicated to demystifying miscarriage. Why is this important?
Miscarriage is very common; there are over 1 million each year in the US, 1 in 5 pregnancies ends in miscarriage. Yet, more often than not women and their families are left alone, in silence, suffering. We would like to change that.

Our story:
In 2003 I suffered a devastating miscarriage. (We had tried for a little while to get pregnant, and when we finally did, we were overjoyed.) I went in search of help... very few knew what to say, what to do. Many just wanted to ignore it - like my miscarriage was contageous, something to be avoided. I searched the internet -- found facts that left me cold, found sites to pour out my emotions that left me drained. It seemed like all hope was lost.

I finally found hope one day when I told my friend Laura about my miscarriage. She confided in me that she too knew first hand about miscarriage and she had something that would help. I couldn't believe it! She gave me a special bracelet that her mother had
given her. Just like Laura, I wore the bracelet everyday until I had my son, almost a year later. At first the bracelet was a distraction for me, then it became a symbol of hope.

Laura and I used to talk during playdates, " are we doing what we are supposed to be doing? are we leaving the world a better place than we found it? isn't there something we could do together?"

One day a friend called me up, she was crying. Through her tears she told me she had just suffered a miscarriage, and would I come over and sit with her. Of course I went. I gave her a bracelet.

When I returned home, another friend called and said, "how did you know what to do? teach me how I can help our friend too." At that instant I knew this is what we were meant to do. I called Laura and said I know what we can do... and with that Our Hope Place was born. (Note: the entire story of how OurHopePlace.com came to be, including Laura's story of her miscarriage and how it felt to share the bracelet can be seen at www.OurHopePlace.com).

We opened on November 1, 2006. We measure our success by the people we help... those that receive bracelets and then come back to buy them for their friends saying, "I hope this helps you as much as it helped me." Or by one woman who says, "We are focusing on adoption now. While I don't wear my bracelet everyday, I wear it on the hardest days." We know we are doing good in the world. And we feel this should qualify us to be considered as a winner of the Leading Moms in Business Competition.