We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Heffinger recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

It’s a GIRL! The first time-expecting parents scream in excitement and begin making all the phone calls to family, social media posts, texting friends so others can share in the excitement. Little did they know that excitement at 15 weeks gestation would drastically change a few weeks later.

The couple walk into the doctors office just five weeks later to check on their baby girl. They couldn’t wait to hear from the tech as she walked them through the anatomy scan appointment, ensuring the expecting parents that there were ten fingers and ten toes and the most perfect and healthy baby girl. Instead, the doctor walks in and says “There’s no heartbeat.”

December 3, 2010 forever changed Jessica & Josh Heffinger. Jessica labored for over nine hours and delivered a 1lb 2oz stillborn baby girl that the parents named Riley Marie.

This was just the start of their story… what they would do next was something they never knew was in the plans for them.

Seven years after having a stillborn daughter and two early miscarriages, Jessica, brought the idea to her husband to start a business that would bring comfort to grieving families. Josh was skeptical of the idea, as he didn’t want Jessica to get her hopes up and the “idea” not be successful.

In March of 2017, Glory Baby Ministry was founded. The organization would serve local families in Bowling Green, Kentucky grieving a miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant loss with burial gown or memorial packages. This idea of staying local only changed when a grieving mother from Iowa reached out for services. She couldn’t just run to the store and purchase anything for her very tiny baby. This led the organization to become nation-wide in May of 2017 and in 2020 services were being provided to grieving families world-wide The services provided by Glory Baby Ministry are offered completely free.

Jessica, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The grief that Jessica Heffinger went through after losing her daughter at 21 weeks gestation led her to start Glory Baby Ministry.

No expecting parent wants to be apart of this “club” of grief. A club that can feel so lonely, but reality is that 1 in 4 pregnancies end in a loss. At the time of her losses, Jessica knew no one that experienced this hardest of life circumstances. Friends starting speaking about their losses to Jessica and she was completely shocked at how many people she actually knew that had experienced similar losses. Jessica has ventured out to let others know it is okay to talk about your baby, it’s okay to celebrate those special days and YOU ARE NOT ALONE in this journey of grief.

Jessica took the skill sets she learned from previous jobs and the way she was raised to start from scratch this non-profit organization that has a Global reach.

Jessica grew up in a small town where she graduated with 44 people. At a young age she began working for $2 an hour to help family in the tobacco barn and on the farm. In High School when she wasn’t participating in School Clubs or volunteering in the community you could find her working in lawn care for a local Monastery. When college came she found herself working in the Housing and Residence Life Department and loving every aspect of the job.

After her daughter was stillborn on December 3, 2010 (while being a Hall Director at Western Kentucky University) she went on to have a healthy baby girl the following year on December 26, 2011. The couple decided that it was best that Jessica be a stay at home mom and supplement income by babysitting in the home. While babysitting, Jessica also started a photography business and met some amazing people along the way. Jessica babysat and ran a photography business for five years.

Throughout her life she has picked up the confidence to be a public speaker, skill sets in being a leader, a fundraising extraordinaire and Jack of all trades. Being provided with amble opportunity for personal and professional growth has allowed Jessica to stand out amongst her peers.

Glory Baby Ministry grew so fast that Jessica shut down her photography and babysitting businesses to be a full-time volunteer for the organization and full-time mom of four daughters at home.

There are organizations similar to Glory Baby Ministry all over the World. Jessica has done a lot of research and from that she has discovered that their non-profit organization is different from the others:

– Packages can be requested no matter if the loss was recent or years ago.
– Packages are for 4 week gestation losses through 12lb infant losses
– The grieving parents can live anywhere in the Globe to receive the free services from Glory Baby Ministry
– Glory Baby and is not grant or state funded. They are funded from individual and business donors

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Starting a non-profit organization from scratch is not for the faint of heart. Jessica ran into obstacles from the day one of founding the organization in March of 2017. Jessica learned quickly that businesses couldn’t provide much funding unless there was a 501c3 non-profit status behind the organizations name. After months of trying to fund the organization personally and from a couple of individual donors the founders were approached by a community member. The community member and his wife had just experienced a miscarriage and they believed in the mission of Glory Baby Ministry. Their monetary donation in September of 2017 allowed the organization to get the non-profit status.

As Jessica began to approach local businesses about donating she again ran into obstacles. She thought “I have the non-profit status, but businesses still aren’t wanting to donate…why?” Jessica caught on quickly that running a non-profit wasn’t going to be as easy as she had once thought. Businesses were hesitant to donate because many had been burned in the past from non-profit organizations. Jessica thought hard and reached out to well established non-profit Executive Directors to receive guidance on how to overcome these obstacles.

Jessica became heavily involved in the local Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce. In 2018, Jessica was caught off guard when a community member asked her if the organization was a Chamber partner, because Jessica didn’t even know what a Chamber of Commerce did. The community member paid for their first two years of being a Chamber partner and it opened so many doors for the organization. Jessica was also able to continue growing her leadership and public speaking skills through opportunities provided by the Chamber.

Blessing after blessing has allowed the Organization to continue serving grieving families for completely free and to date they have never had to ask a grieving family for any monetary funds. To overnight ship ONE burial package cost the organization approximately $120 and a memorial package cost $10 to ship. This is just shipping cost and does not include packaging, items in the package, rent, the cost to run the organization, etc.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When one door opens it seems another closes. Jessica was raised that when God has plans for your life, you can’t ignore those plans…though sometimes we really want to ignore the plans set forth. God placed it on Jessicas heart to be the founder and Executive Director of Glory Baby Ministry.

In 2020, the pandemic threw a curve ball to the Ministry and the non-profit dealt with many obstacles; as did many businesses around the World.

Many donors had to step away from helping monetarily. Volunteer seamstresses, crocheters, knitters, quilters had to step down because they were now teaching their kids from home or they lost their jobs and couldn’t afford the supplies to make items for our organization. Many of our volunteers became so sick that they could no longer commit to helping. It seemed that it was one closed door after another; fundraisers were cancelled, volunteer nights cancelled. God had provided this plan, so now what???

Jessica didn’t lose faith and just adjusted as needed and came up with new plans and ideas to keep the Organization going strong. At the peak of the pandemic the organization shifted its focus from seamstresses making burial gowns to making handmade masks for the community. In 2 short months the Organization provided over 5400 cloth masks to businesses, elderly and immune compromised individuals. The initiative was ran out of Jessicas garage where she spent many late nights sorting and filling mask orders and placing mask in totes on her front porch to be pick up by mask recipients. Many volunteers stepped up to do porch drop offs to the immune compromised individuals who couldn’t leave their home.

The community came together and after the Project Mask Maker initiative was complete the Ministry struggled to switch the focus back to their main mission of serving grieving families.

It has been Jessica’s persistence, her Faith, determination, passion, resilience and support from others that has kept her going. Knowing that the Organization was making a difference all over the Globe and bringing comfort to grieving families was the motivation she needed to stay focused on the true mission of the Ministry.

That motivation and determination led the the Organization to bring comfort to 154 families in 2021; across twenty-seven states and four countries.

Glory Baby Ministry specializes in making burial gowns or memorial packages for parents grieving a miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant loss. You can help by donating monetarily, shopping their Amazon Wishlist, praying, volunteering, or participated in fundraisers.

Contact Info:

• Website: glorybabyministry.org
• Instagram: @glorybabyministry
• Facebook: Glory Baby Ministry (page) and Glory Baby Ministry, Inc (group)
• Linkedin: Glory Baby Ministry
• Twitter: @glorybabyky
• Youtube: glorybabyministry
• Other: TikTok: GloryBabyMinistry

Image Credits
Founder Headshot: Keelan Walker Photography Young Girl: Avery Heffinger (founders daughter) Man: Josh Heffinger (founder) 36 week grieving mother: Sarah Bessinger