1104 results for author: Ashlee Schmidt

Laura’s Story

My daughter's was an easy pregnancy. I glowed from day one, not having much nausea, all the way through to the end when my overdue pregnant self waddled into a room, happy and content, dreaming of my baby. Aside from her necessary induction ten days after her due date, my pregnancy and delivery were textbook. What a blessing. One that I took for granted, as most do when they haven't been touched with loss. Her younger brother's story, while textbook in the pregnancy stages, didn't conclude with a happy ending. Funny how all these years later, I can close my eyes and review details that weren't as sharp to me as I was living in them. The “grief ...

Questioning God’s Heart

It's a scene that I’ll replay in my mind for the rest of my life. Sitting on the floor of our white tub, watching clots of burgundy run down my legs and past my feet. Tears poured down my cheeks, becoming one with the water as it drowned out the sounds of my guttural wailing. It’s a surreal feeling; watching life leave your body and run into the drain. I have lived this memory twice. It feels sacrilegious of sorts. Insensitive and cold. To carry life but instead of giving my babies a proper goodbye, I watched pieces of the life that was once inside of me run into the sewer. From my medical chart, the words, “chemical pregnancy” and “mis...

Ask the Blog Team: Is Avoidance of Difficult People or Circumstances Okay?

Welcome to our Q+A series, Ask the Blog Team. In this series, the Hope Mommies blog team joins together to answer questions that are commonly asked in grief. If there is a question or topic that you have wrestled with in your grief that you would like the opportunity to see how other Hope Moms have processed or answered, we would love to hear from you. You can submit your questions here. Is Avoidance of Difficult People or Circumstances Okay? Yes, I believe temporary avoidance is allowed as a boundary, but the key word is temporary! Sometimes space allows for Satan to creep assumptions into your mind about other people and circumstances ...

In the Word: He Humbled Himself

Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be narrowing in on specific truths of the gospel to learn how they direct and inform us in our grief. As we study these truths together, we’d love you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you dig into God's Word each week with us!  And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:8 READ: As people, we might set ourselves up to be like ...

An Extraordinary Funeral

“After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away His body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the ...

Has God Betrayed Us?

Sweet mom, are you tempted to feel betrayed by God due to your extreme suffering? Are you tempted to feel like He betrayed you to this enemy of death and pain? Think about this: when Jesus was betrayed by Judas, He knew He had not been betrayed by the Father. For Jesus knew the Father's purpose and plans in sending Him. Like Jesus, when being betrayed to death by Judas, we can look to God's plan. Like Jesus, we can have poignant perspective and peace from the Scriptures, perspective that directs our hearts toward God. The Gospel of John records in detail the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples prior to being betrayed. So we know exactly what ...

Comforted By the Father

After Ashlee and I lost our second baby, I was tired and didn’t really know how to care for my family. They needed care that I didn’t think I could provide. I remember sitting on our couch feeling so helpless. And that feeling wasn’t wrong. I couldn’t give my wife what she needed. She needed God’s love and comfort in a way that I could not give on my own. But at the same time my calling to love my wife was still the same as its all ways been.  Ephesians 5:25 tells us, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”  Even when I was at a loss as to how to care for my wife, what God called me to ...

Discussions in Grief: Questioning

Grieving involves new emotions and considerations often too many to numbers. When you find yourself in overwhelming grief, you likely feel buried and lost. In this series, we slowly and compassionately look at one aspect of grief at a time from a biblical perspective for the newly grieving mother. Click {here} to read past posts in this series.  When I was pregnant with our daughter and she was given a fatal diagnosis, we set our hearts and minds to believing and praying for healing. In faith we prayed over her, we read and spoke Scripture over her, we gathered around us a community of prayer warriors, and we really believed God would answer ...

Held Together

Our third child enters the world. The room is silent. There is no noise, only hushed commotion—no cries from my babe. The air is thick, but peace is present. I look up and ask my sister, “Does my baby look like a baby?” “Oh goodness, yes,” she replies. I then ask, “Is it a boy or a girl?” All goes quiet for several seconds, and Dr. G gently replies, “It’s a boy.” Brandon lets out a cry from the sitting room. The nurses gently clean off my son. They weigh and measure him. 6.6 ounces and 7 inches of perfection. They wrap him in a tiny blanket and place a tiny hat on his head. He is little, yet amazingly formed. The nurse ...

In the Word: Before the Foundation of the World

Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be narrowing in on specific truths of the gospel to learn how they direct and inform us in our grief. As we study these truths together, we’d love you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you dig into God's Word each week with us!  “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world.” 1 Peter 1:20 "...this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the ...