Today we’d like to introduce you to Shari Green.
Shari, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I got married July-30, 2019, to Ahmaad Green, the love of my life after five months of courting. We just knew we wanted to take the journey of life with each other. I already had a seven-year-old son, Nicholas. We became this beautiful blended family but were excited to expand and have our own child together. A month after our wedding, I found out I was pregnant! I was working as a special education educator at the time. I loved my kiddos and enjoyed pouring into them each and every day. I however, was extremely sick most of my pregnancy, so working with my kiddos, being a mom, and now wife was very challenging. As a woman of strong faith, I leaned on God through it all. I found out when I was six months that I was having a girl! We named her Grace Glory Green. We spent many nights as a family praying over her, dancing, laughing, and imagining her joining us soon enough.
Two days before I hit 36 weeks, I realized that I no longer felt her moving. I tried everything my doctor’s suggested but nothing worked. I went into the emergency room and found out that Grace no longer had a heartbeat. She was gone. Mind you. This is during COVID 19. We had to postpone then eventually cancel our baby shower. It would have been the first time both of Ahmaad’s and my family would have all come together since we got married. We had a small ceremony so we only invited a few people.
My heart and my husband’s heart were broken. Our first child together, gone a few weeks before we were supposed to meet her. I was induced a day later and gave birth to baby Grace. We held her, sang to her, and got to say our final goodbyes. The whole time at the hospital, doctors, nurses, everyone kept saying, “we’re sorry for your loss.” I can’t imagine they knew what else to say. I was laying on the hospital bed a day after I gave birth to Grace and I started daydreaming. I was daydreaming about how I would have liked to be comforted. I imagined getting a gift that once I opened it, I right away felt encouraged and filled with some sense of hope.
That is how The Grace Box was birthed. We are a subscription box company that helps our community naviagate grief. Each month our community will get a grace box filled with wellness products, a guided grief journal that gives tools and encouragement towards healing, access to courses, and a community to walk through grief with. Grief is a journey and it looks different in different seasons. My experience pushed me to decide that I wanted to create a product so no one ever had to grieve without community. Our community showed up for Ahmaaad, Nicholas, and myself in a major way. We received gifts, phone calls, and so much more. The Grace Box is committed to serving our community by showing up for them each month with a new experience that leads towards healing and hopes through a journey that can be so hard to live through.
The Grace Box is now open for pre-orders and we already have merchandise people have purchased through our site. yourgracebox.com We have T-shirts that promote hope and bring a smile to those that read the sayings. We officially launch December 15th, 2020. The icing on the cake with this business is that I have since met so many women that I have been able to encourage and share tools to naviagte their grief. And… we are pregnant! We are 12 weeks pregnant with our rainbow baby and excited for all that lies ahead for The Grace Box.
Has it been a smooth road?
We are in the start-up phase so it has been a lot of discovery. I have owned a cookie business but never a subscription-based business so I am truly learning as I go. Each day I challenge myself to complete a different task to get us exposure and to create a solid foundation for the business. I ordered our first box from one company then realized the quality wasn’t the best so I found another from joining three different subscription box business pages.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Grace Box story. Tell us more about the business.
We specialize in giving a gift of grace to those grieving. We are an e-commerce subscription box business. Each month our community can look forward to a box filled with wellness and self-care products, a guided journal for healing, online courses, and a community to share the journey with. Grief can impair how you navigate your day today and we have consulted and researched alongside mental health professionals to be able to share the same tools and wisdom that would be shared in most therapist’s offices. Not everyone has access to therapy or is open to going but we want to provide them with the same quality tools to help them discover healing and community. We are wrapping the journey of grief in a beautiful box filled with hope and community.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We see ourselves becoming the go-to for grief gifts. We will take feedback and continue to ask our community what it needs so that we can craft the best experience for our community each month. We hope to be found on a Target shelf! (target is special to us, it is where we got engaged!) Imagine hearing someone you know has experienced a loss. You may not have the words to say, but you could go purchase a Grace Box and meet them with a hug and a gift of grace.
Pricing:
- The Grace Box subscription is $49.99
- Pre-orders currently receive 15% percent off their first box.
Contact Info:
- Website: yourgracebox.com
- Email: hello@yourgracebox.com
- Instagram: yourgracebox
- Facebook: yourgracebox
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