"At some point in our lives, we could all use a fairy godmother," Janice Murphy tells PEOPLE

Several weeks after her only child, Analiese, died of a rare genetic abnormality on the day she was born, 25-year-old Janice Murphy of Fort Meade, Maryland, took a purple teddy bear holding her daughter’s ashes to Disney World, determined to share the special trip she’d dreamed about in the only way she knew how.

On March 14, while Janice’s husband, Stefan, 26, was away at military training in Orlando, Janice went on the rides she thought her daughter would have enjoyed, had she lived and grown up to become a toddler and a kindergartner. Then, still clutching the teddy bear, she lined up for photos with Disney characters in Fantasyland, including Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother.

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What happened next has changed the Murphys’ lives for the better and given them a new sense of purpose since Analiese’s death. When the woman portraying the Fairy Godmother asked about the bear, Janice told her the devastating reason she’d brought the stuffed animal to the theme park. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” the Fairy Godmother said. “Can I give you a big hug?”

After posing with her for a snapshot while the Fairy Godmother hugged the bear, Janice was so touched by the encounter that she wrote a letter to the Disney character and posted it on Facebook with one of the photos.

Since then, her post has been shared nearly 33,000 times, prompting Janice and her husband to reach out to other parents who have lost newborns and offer their compassion and support.

“I was lucky to have a counselor to help me through the grieving process, but so many other parents don’t have that,” Janice, a cake decorator who has written a blog about her experience, tells PEOPLE. “There are few counselors who do specifically what mine does, focusing on parents who have stillbirths or people who know their child is going to be born with genetic problems. So in Analiese’s memory, I want to raise awareness.”

Married almost six years, Janice and Stefan, a military employee, were thrilled when they learned last year that they’d soon be new parents.

Their elation quickly turned to devastation, though, when ultrasounds and an amniocentesis revealed that Analiese had a rare genetic disorder known as Distal Trisomy 10Q, which causes abnormally slow growth before and after birth.

The Murphys learned that one of the chambers in Analiese’s heart hadn’t formed and neither of her kidneys were functioning. “There was no hope,” Janice tells PEOPLE, “but we didn’t want to terminate the pregnancy. We wanted a chance to at least meet our daughter.”

So on Feb. 11, doctors induced Janice at 37 weeks and Analiese was born weighing 3 pounds, 1.7 ounces. While the Murphys held their tiny daughter and expressed their love, telling her that she was beautiful and brave, a volunteer photographer from Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep snapped photos for the couple to have as a keepsake after they’d said their goodbyes.

“Analiese lived only 85 minutes,” Janice tells PEOPLE, “but I’m so grateful that we had that precious time with her. My husband got the baby girl he wanted so badly – we just didn’t get to keep her. It’s the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do in our lives.”

Longtime Disney fans, the Murphys decided to go ahead with a trip together in March to Orlando since Stefan needed to attend military training exercises.

“While he was away, I spent four days at Disney World – I’ve loved it since I was a little girl,” says Janice. “When we found out we were pregnant, we talked about going with Analiese in the fall in 2017. But since that didn’t happen, I decided to take her along another way, with the teddy bear.”

Initially surprised that her letter to Disney’s Fairy Godmother went viral, Janice now says she believes her experience gives other grieving parents hope.