Sunday, July 20, 2008
Outreach helps couple's healing
Karen and Phillip Andes of Blacksburg founded Noah's Outreach last year after the stillborn birth of their child.
Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times
Karen and Phillip Andes, whose son, Noah, was stillborn, formed Noah's Outreach, which sends blankets, booties, caps, Bibles and New Testaments to hospitals and pregnancy centers and those who have lost a child.
Want to help?
- What: Noah’s Memorial Birthday Party Pancake Breakfast will be held to benefit Noah’s Outreach. All-you-can-eat pancakes, sausage and a beverage, door prizes and a bake sale, silent auction with autographed Virginia Tech and NASCAR items, packages to local golf courses and more.
- When: 6:39 a.m. to 2 p.m., Aug. 2
- Where: Blacksburg Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, 500 N. Main St., Blacksburg
- Cost: adults, $5; children 4 to 12, $3; kids under 3 free
- Contact: 552-3869, karen@noahsoutreach.com or noahsoutreach.com
Did you know?
- To date, Noah’s Outreach has sent 600 Bibles, 20 pairs of baby caps and booties, and another 25 sets of caps and booties with a blanket included. All of the Bibles are stamped in memory of Noah Matthew Andes, and booties are tagged with Noah’s Outreach cards.
- The mission of Noah’s Outreach is to give comfort to those who have suffered the loss of an infant or child, to give them words of hope and encouragement for the future, and a blanket to cherish in honor and memory of their son or daughter, and continue to keep Noah’s memory alive, Karen Andes said.
- “When we send stuff out, we’re not expecting anything back,” Phillip Andes said. “We just want to give comfort where we found comfort.”
BLACKSBURG -- It was quiet.
Last year, Karen and Phillip Andes of Blacksburg were preparing for the birth of their first child on Aug. 12, but when they went for the second-to-last doctor's visit on Aug. 3, the doctors couldn't find the baby's heartbeat.
"When we had gotten pregnant and it started getting closer and closer, we never imagined at the last visit there would be no heartbeat," Phillip Andes said.
The next day, Karen Andes went into labor and Noah Matthew Andes was stillborn at 6:39 a.m.
"We never imagined we would have to plan a funeral rather than a welcoming to the world," Karen Andes said.
One of the strangest things was the silence where there should have been the screaming of a new baby, Phillip Andes said.
During their time in the hospital, the Andeses looked for a Bible to comfort themselves and start looking for verses for Noah's funeral, but couldn't find one in the hospital room.
By the time they left the hospital later that week, an idea had been born.
The Andeses wanted to reach out to other couples who had lost a child, so they formed Noah's Outreach, which sends blankets, booties, caps, Bibles and New Testaments to hospitals and pregnancy centers and those who have lost a child.
They send Bibles because they could not find one in their hospital room, and blankets because the hospital gave the couple the blanket Noah had been wrapped in when the couple first held him.
"Having the blanket we held him in, something I know he touched means so much to us I know it would mean so much to someone else," Karen Andes said.
Founding Noah's Outreach has helped the couple heal as well as help others, said Tina Lee, a family friend.
Lee often stayed with Karen Andes during her recovery while Phillip Andes was at work and heard the plans for Noah's Outreach as it took off.
"It was a mission for them. I'm really proud of them for pulling it off," Lee said. "Out of this grief there have been positives come out of it."
Noah's Outreach is funded by donations through the Noah Matthew Andes Memorial Fund in the care of Blacksburg Baptist Church, where the Andeses are members and Karen Andes is the office administrator.
But the outreach isn't denominational, Phillip Andes said. The point is to comfort those in need, no matter what faith, if any, they are.
"Their faith is incredible," Lee said. "I've heard them comforting others who are in the same situation and ministering to someone else because only someone who has been there can really understand."
The Andeses hope to have more children in time but said they know the pain of losing Noah will never go away. But knowing they are touching the lives of people they or Noah probably never would have met gives them comfort. That's why the organization is called Noah's Outreach, Karen Andes said.
"Whatever we do, we want it to have his name on it, because we'll never forget him."
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