1104 results for author: Ashlee Schmidt


Andrea’s Story

"My husband and I met through a prank phone call my first semester of college. I was a bright-eyed eighteen year-old fresh out of high school and he was a dreamy junior who was the front man in a rock band. Some might even say that he robbed the cradle. But you’re probably more curious about the prank phone call, right? The phone rang in my dorm room late one night and I picked it up. It was a group of not-so-nice boys who said they were in my English class, and I naively believed them. As it turns out, they were randomly picking girls from the Belmont University directory and cold-calling them.  They asked me why I came to Nashville and I ...

Identity: We Are Chosen

Deep down we all long to be accepted and pursued. This longing is also accompanied by a deep sense of rejection when we feel as if we don’t fit in or seem to be forgotten by others — when you don’t get called back after the interview, when someone else gets the promotion, when you don’t make the team, when everyone around you seems to be bringing home their babies and your arms feel heavy with emptiness.  But dear sister, please hear this:  as your friends are posting pictures of beautifully decorated nurseries while yours remains empty, as the moms in your community meet together, and they don’t think to include you because your child is ...

God is So Good

The morning was just like any other morning. I woke up. Had coffee with my husband. Did a little reading. Then headed to the bathroom after all that coffee. That's when it happened. The dreaded monthly reminder that I was not pregnant. Again. I know there are women that try for years and cannot get pregnant, however, I had been unable to relate to that sort of thing until then. I had three beautiful children. Every single one of them was conceived within one or two months of trying. I hadn't given it much thought that there was a possibility that I COULDN'T get pregnant. So when my husband and I decided we wanted to have another child... I was ...

5 Things to Remember This Mother’s Day

Sweet mommas, as you are surrounded with all of the commercialism of Mother's Day, I pray that you will not allow satan to use this holiday to rob you of the hope you have in our Great God!  As you consider the invitation that Christ has laid out before you, I pray that these words from fellow Hope Moms will encourage your heart: 5 Things to Remember This Mother's Day 1. YOU ARE A MOTHER "Mother’s Day is such a confusing day for Hope Mommies. It is supposed to be a day of celebration, but it can bring on such strong emotions of emptiness and longing. While everyone around us is receiving flowers, getting hand drawn cards, or having arms wrap ...

Identity: We Are Alive

Join us on the blog over the next eight weeks as we study together what God's Word says about who we are in Christ. ... “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” -Ephesians 2:4-7 But God. These two little words carry life-altering significance. Whenever you see these words, you know ...

Jessica’s Story

"We began trying for children 6 years ago in October 2009. Due to a rare genetic disorder my husband carried we anticipated loss because of family history. From May 2010-February 2012 we experienced 3 losses. They were all 3-6 week losses and no heartbeats. We kept trusting the Lord even though it was really hard. I had to battle a lot of bitter feelings because I had friends getting pregnant left and right. It was a challenging time because, while we knew what the Bible says about the faithfulness of God, we were not seeing our prayers answered in ways we expected. We tried fertility doctors, seeking further answers, but we're just met with ...

Identity: We Are Forgiven

Join us on the blog over the next eight weeks as we study together what God's Word says about who we are in Christ.   ... “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” -Colossians 1:13-14 We are all sinful beings.  In fact all of creation — every drop of rain, every blade of grass, every fish in the sea — is groaning under the weight of sin.  Our sin separates us from the presence of our Holy God, and there is nothing that we can do to remedy this on our own.  We can never measure up to the insurmountable holiness of God.  If ...

Crown of Beauty: Session 4- Part 2

February 5-7 found 71 Hope Moms from all over the United States in Giddings, Texas. We spent a weekend sharing our stories, our precious babies, and finding that Christ can indeed comfort the brokenhearted, often through the hands and tears of another sufferer along the way. The following series is a recap of each of the main teaching sessions. "Your story happened the way the Lord orchestrated it to happen.  He knew before you even got pregnant that this was the way it was going to end. You can go back and say, “If I had only done this.” “If I had only called one day earlier.” “If only I had recognized when the kicks slowed ...

Irina’s Story

Finding Hope in the midst of Loss "Growing up I have always said that my magic number was five. Yes, I wanted to have five children when I would become a mommy. I thought it was so easy to get pregnant. I had no problems getting pregnant with our first baby. He was healthy, beautiful, and most of all loud. He was one little man with one huge personality. He was everything to us. When our son was around a year and a half, I got pregnant again. I loved seeing the plus sign on the pregnancy test and we called and told everyone who we knew that I was pregnant. However, within two months of my pregnancy I started to bleed. It then followed with heavy ...

Crown of Beauty: Session 4 – Part 1

February 5-7 found 71 Hope Moms from all over the United States in Giddings, Texas. We spent a weekend sharing our stories, our precious babies, and finding that Christ can indeed comfort the brokenhearted, often through the hands and tears of another sufferer along the way. The following series is a recap of each of the main teaching sessions. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are ...