Facilitator
Spokane, WA

My name is Arah Kunz.  I was born in Arizona and raised in Nevada, Utah, California and now reside in Spokane, Washington. I am a woman of many hobbies, such as, photography, baking, gardening, sewing and quilting, camping and traveling.

I met my husband, Matt, in January of 1999 and married him that December. We had always planned for a large family. In our first 2 years of marriage, I suffered 4 miscarriages. Finally, after much heartache, we were blessed with our oldest daughter, Brinley, born in April of 2003. She is quite independent and stubborn, just like her mom. She has been a joy to have and we couldn’t imagine our lives without her. Eighteen months after her birth, I miscarried again. This time was especially hard, we were certain we had found the cause with the previous losses.
It took another 2 plus years to get pregnant again. Everything was going well. I had got passed the first trimester and were certain that I would carry this baby. On July 13th, 2007 at 19 weeks, we went for a routine ultrasound. Instead of finding out the gender, we came home knowing that our baby wasn’t going to live long past birth. She had Polycystic Kidney disease, or Potters Sequence. We spent the next 4 months preparing for her funeral. I gave birth to Olivia Kamille on November 11, 2007. She lived just short of 2 hours. We bathed her, dressed her, photographed her, made molds of her hands, feet and face, and loved her. We spent 20 hours with Olivia before handing her over to the Chaplain.
Her funeral was beautiful. The things that she taught us in her short life couldn’t have been learned without her passing.

Three short months after her death, I found out I was pregnant again. It was a surprise to us. This pregnancy went perfectly.  Sarah Mae was born November 8th, 2008. Three days shy of Olivia’s first birthday. Sarah has been an absolute blessing to our family. She looks a lot like her older sister, Olivia.
 
About the same time I found out I was pregnant with Sarah, I became a photography volunteer with the Forget Me Not Program at Providence Sacred Heart hospital here in Spokane. The same program I went through with Olivia. I feel it an honor and privilege to photograph many babies that have died or are experiencing life threatening illness.