Our Brooklyn,


After 5 years of fertility treatments, the miscarriage of our first child Spring 2022, countless shots and IVF appointments, Chris and I learned that one of the two embryos we transferred on December 20th, 2022 stuck around. Since that day, we have felt such an outpouring of love and support for our rainbow baby. We were all so excited to welcome her into our lives and for her to attend shows with me.


The ICRP crew joked that Brooke would be photographing candids by the age of 2 and probably be sitting in the arena photographing riders by the age of 5. I already had people offering to lend me ponies to do the beginners class with her if Buckshot wasn't able to. Alex had even made her some adorable BGY Photography onesies so she would match with Isabelle and me at shows.


Chris was so excited to watch football this season with her, to read all the books to her, and when she was a little older, for her to choose her favorite Pokemon stuffed animal. He had already been playing piano and singing to her since the day we found out she stuck around. Brooke would always move when she heard him singing around the house and at church. He was so excited to sing Disney songs to her and rewatch Frozen 100s of times if she wanted.


Needless to say, we were all ready for my miracle baby to join the ICRP crew and our lives.


But unfortunately, Brooklyn Genevieve Yingling was stillborn on Friday, August 25, 2023, at 38 weeks and 1 day. After realizing baby B wasn’t moving, a trip to our OB’s office confirmed the absolute worst. After failing a non-stress test, an ultrasound confirmed that our Brooklyn had no heartbeat.


24 hours previous, she scored a perfect 8/8 score and we had set a date for induction for the next Friday. She was moving around and was our spunky little girl the day before. But in those 24 hours, she moved around in just the wrong way and caused a knot in her umbilical cord. This is an occurrence that happens in 1% of babies. And it happened to Brooke seven days before we were set to bring her into the world. And of course, it would happen to our family. (You can read more about our fertility journey here)


I had an emergency C-section and for several hours, Chris and I were able to hold and love our perfect baby girl and tried to fit our lifetime of love into mere moments before letting her go.


She had a full head of dark brown hair and looked SO much like Chris. Born at 6:41 pm, she was 21 inches long and weighed 7lbs 1oz.


Brooke is laid to rest under a tree near her uncle Evan (my youngest brother), who chose to leave this world in 2019. It means the world to us that he’ll be there watching over her and our first baby in Heaven. Chris and I have been positively overwhelmed by the love from all of our friends and family. From our church family, to our horse community and from college friends to Indiana neighbors, we’ve felt the outpouring of love from everyone. From the bottom of both of our hearts, thank you for loving us and our sweet Brooklyn so well. We’re humbled and incredibly grateful.


If you're not sure if you should talk to me about any of this at shows or around, I'm always happy to talk about my little girl. Just be warned that I will cry, but that's a normal part of my life these days. We deeply miss our sweet girl and there are no magic words to fix it or make it better. With her death, we lost a lifetime of hopes and dreams for her and are left only with the question of what would life have been like with her here.


"I will learn to live in the sunshine of your life instead of the dark shadow of your death"