Through Loss, She Found Her Voice
Kelsey Wagner’s journey transforms grief into healing for others
“I had my first miscarriage in 2021 …”
Four times, 32-year-old Kelsey Wagner stared at the little pink plus sign showing a positive pregnancy test. Each time, in the days and weeks to come, she experienced loss.
“As soon as you see your positive pregnancy test, you start planning a whole life. You start dreaming. What is your nursery going to look like? All those things start swarming into your head,” Kelsey says. “Then, it doesn’t happen.”
Kelsey’s second miscarriage came in May 2024. Her third, in February 2025, and after a positive pregnancy test in April of 2025, she discovered she was carrying twins.
“And then we found out that ‘Baby B’ stopped growing,” Kelsey says with emotion. “It was this moment of, ‘How do we continue to walk through pregnancy, knowing we've lost one of our babies? But also, we still have a baby growing.’”
In December 2025, Kelsey and her husband, Josh, welcomed Aria into the world, a beautiful, brown-eyed bundle of wonder. After so much pain, she was an answered prayer.
“She just brings joy everywhere she goes, and she has really learned her smile matters,” Kelsey says with a laugh. “Her life is so special, and I have loved watching every part of her growth.” She pauses before adding, “It makes you wonder what it would have looked like to meet our other babies, but our journey led us here.”
Today, Kelsey’s journey involves walking alongside women who are suffering. One in four pregnancies ends in loss, yet stigma keeps many women silent and feeling alone.
“I think for a long time, people just carried shame. What did I do wrong?” Kelsey says.
The Mother’s Day after Kelsey’s first miscarriage, a gift from her sister Ashley arrived in her mailbox. It ended up showing Kelsey the power of her voice.
“The gift was just so unexpected,” Kelsey says. “It came wrapped in this beautiful tissue paper. It had a little card sticking out of it. And I immediately started tearing up because I was like, oh, this is special. This is for me. This is something specific for what I'm walking through.”
It was a T-shirt honoring that first Mother’s Day without a little one in her arms. It was made by a company called Evermore Blooms, whose sole mission is to send flowers and thoughtful gifts to moms experiencing pregnancy loss. Each gift comes with a special handwritten message from the company’s CEO.
“It was just so sweet to see someone who didn’t even know me take the time to write a postcard, wrap up a gift for me in the most beautiful packaging and send it to me because she wanted me to feel seen and loved and she wanted me to know that my baby was seen and loved, too.”
At the time, Kelsey’s sister Ashley Paulson was living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the city where Evermore Blooms was born.
“I wanted Kelsey to know she wasn’t alone on that first Mother’s Day,” Ashley says.
Ashley felt giving a gift that then funded bouquets to send to moms on their hardest days seemed perfect. Since then, she’s watched Kelsey’s advocacy blossom as well. “Even in the hardest moments, Kelsey took the time to sit with her grief and work through it. I walked through infertility, so I know how lonely and devastating some women’s pregnancy journeys can be.”
With each loss, Kelsey became more emboldened to try to learn why she was apt to miscarry. It took her a few tries to find a doctor willing to help her answer that question.
“Not until you have three miscarriages will they start doing testing and start ordering more extensive labs. And that's when insurance will start covering it,” Kelsey says. Her current doctor discovered additional progesterone, a vital hormone that helps prepare the uterus for pregnancy, helped Kelsey in early pregnancy, as did a baby aspirin a day.
“That seemed to do the trick,” Kelsey says. “Looking back, I could have advocated for myself more, but I wasn’t in a place where I had the capacity. I was still processing everything.”
For the past seven years, Kelsey has worked at LaVie Health, where she now leads the nonprofit’s marketing efforts. LaVie offers free services, helping women as they navigate often unplanned pregnancies. After seeing some of the women they serve experience loss, Kelsey made it her mission, with the help of the nursing staff there, to craft a pregnancy loss resource guide.
“When you’re in the middle of a miscarriage, there’s so much information out there,” she says. “Looking at the internet to figure out what is normal and what’s not is a really scary place to be.” The guide outlines what women can expect, based on how far along they are, including when to seek medical care. “I shared it with Evermore Blooms and said, ‘If this is something you can use, we want it to be a resource for others.’”
That connection led to a phone call with Evermore Blooms’ CEO, Chelsey Schnell. At the end of the call, Kelsey asked Chelsey if she could pray for her. Kelsey had no idea the company was looking for a board member to head up the company’s prayer team. Chelsey unexpectedly found her person. Kelsey is now in charge of the group that prays for each woman receiving a bouquet that week.
“This work requires a level of tenderness, grace, love, kindness and empathy that is not easy to find, but is absolutely crucial to our mission,” Chelsey says. “Kelsey has brought all of that, and so much more.”
In six years, the nonprofit has sent more than 1,000 bouquets to women in 49 states. In each bouquet, the woman will find a little wooden flower that symbolizes the baby she lost. “It is something that lasts,” Kelsey says. “And it can be a beautiful remembrance.”
Because of Kelsey, LaVie now shares what they call miscarriage care bags to women they serve who experience loss. Each tote bag, crafted by Evermore Blooms, contains items that can provide comfort to a woman as she begins the physical and emotional journey toward healing, says LaVie Health CEO Cindy Nordstog.
“They provide a tangible way to meet women in one of the most tender and painful moments of their lives,” she says. “They communicate care and understanding, letting a woman know she is not alone in her loss.”
As Kelsey holds Aria in her arms, she at times reflects on the fact that she is a mother of five. Four babies in heaven. One on earth. Each one has a name, and she and Josh honor each of their due dates as they would a birthday, with a small celebration and, sometimes, a cake. Being an ally for women who have experienced a miscarriage is nothing she ever envisioned for herself, but she embraces it just the same.
“If our story can bring anyone who is experiencing loss a bit of comfort or the courage to be able to say something or ask for support,” Kelsey says, “then the pain that we have walked through has been worth it.”
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT EVERMORE BLOOMS, including the pregnancy loss resource guide, visit evermoreblooms.org. You can learn more about the services provided at LaVie Health by visiting laviebillings.org.
