1104 results for author: Ashlee Schmidt

Advent: The Hope of Christ

Does it feel as though God is silent or distant? Does it seem like the Christmas season only reminds you of the ache in your heart for the ones you wished were with you? Do you wonder if God will breathe life into the broken places of your heart, or if there will ever be a day where it won’t feel so dark? You are not alone in those questions, fears, and silent cries for God to not feel so silent. In fact, for 400 years the people of Israel felt those same questions stirring in their souls. The God who had guided their people through the wilderness, performed miracles, spoken through prophets, and promised a Savior would come to redeem and restore ...

In the Word: God is One

Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be pouring over Scripture with the goal of knowing God increasingly as He truly is. As we study together, we encourage 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 study these names of God along with us!  Knowing Our Glorious God “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” Deut. 6:4 READ: There is one unified God—one essence in three Persons. The Father is fully God, the Son is ...

Links for Hope Moms: Winter 2018 Edition

We want to share with you links to posts, videos, and resources from around the web to uplift, help, and encourage you in your walk with the Lord as you grieve. {Loving Your Friend Through Infertility} // Following the loss of a child, many Hope Moms, go on to experience secondary infertility. In this post, Meredith Hodge writes about how you can love and serve a friend who is struggling with infertility in a Gospel-centered way. "Mourning together not only unifies us as sisters in Christ, it is also a living example to those around us. Consider Jesus’ response when his dear friend Lazarus died: He wept. To the onlookers observing his ...

Kelsey’s Story

May 27, 2018. My due date. My husband and I once looked forward to this day with so much excitement and anticipation. It might not have even been this day exactly. It could have been a few days earlier, probably a few days later. Regardless, according to our plan it would have happened. But that’s the thing about life sometimes. It doesn’t always go the way you plan—because in October 2017, I had a miscarriage. I was far enough along in my pregnancy to barely start showing. I was far enough along to experience the rough symptoms that I would give anything to feel again. Very few people even knew I was pregnant, let alone knew I ...

A Sacrifice of Praise

It was late on a Friday evening in January. I was sitting in a chapel with dozens of high school students at a winter retreat, thankful for the dim lighting that hid the tears that were streaming down my face. Just a few hours earlier I had been told that my baby’s heart was no longer beating. The worship team began playing, and soon the room was filled with the sound of voices lifted up in praise. I robotically formed the words of each song on my lips, but I was numb to what was taking place around me. Inside, I was crying out to the Lord, mourning the death of the child that I still carried within me. The next morning we gathered together again ...

In the Word: God is Immutable

Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be pouring over Scripture with the goal of knowing God increasingly as He truly is. As we study together, we encourage 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 study these names of God along with us!  Knowing Our Glorious God “For I the LORD do not change” Malachi 3:6a READ: God is immutable—or, unchangeable. In all of His promises, acts, words, and being, He is always who He ...

Made for a Different Land Contributor Interviews {Giving Tuesday Save the Date}

For the first time this year, Hope Mommies will have a free gift for those who want to donate to the ministry through the annual Giving Tuesday campaign starting November 27—a new book, Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss, written by Lianna Davis with Brittnie Blackburn, Stephanie Blanks, Lindsey Dennis, Abigail Eades, Sam Martin, Ashlee Schmidt, Meg Walker, and Calli Williams.* Today, I hope to provide an opportunity for the contributors to the book to speak from their hearts about this project and their ministries of words. I asked them to send a paragraph about their mission behind writing for grieving mothers, what they ...

Amanda’s Retreat Experience

Mother’s Day, May 14, 2017. Harrison’s Birthday. I had envisioned that weekend to be completely different. My first Mother’s Day. A day to celebrate that I was now a momma. Instead, we said hello and goodbye to our sweet boy on that day. I was in complete shock that something like this could even happen to us, but I knew the best thing I could do during this time was seek to biblical truth. I constantly questioned the Lord, asking why it had to happen to us. Why did our healthy boy only live on earth long enough for us to fall head over heels in love with him before being ripped from our arms? Why didn’t He take me instead of ...

Christi’s Story

“There’s no heartbeat.” Four words—words no parent ever wants to hear. My husband and I have three daughters, so at our 20 week sonogram, the four words we were hoping to hear were, “You’re having a boy!” But on September 13, 2016, those other four words changed our lives forever. We left the office, drove home, and told our daughters that the baby we all wanted so badly was not going to be coming home with us. Two days later, we delivered the son we hoped for, but not the way we hoped to. Angel was stillborn due to chord issues. The pain of saying hello and good-bye to our son in the span of a few hours was crushi...

Local Chapter Spotlight: Central Texas

What's happening in Central Texas: The Central Texas Chapter of Hope Mommies was established in the fall of 2016 and is currently serving the areas of Temple/Belton, Waco, and Austin. It all started with a desire that a dear friend and I had to place Hope Boxes at the hospital where we both had delivered our stillborn sons. As we went through the process of hosting our first box gathering, Hope Mommies started advertising the creation of chapters to provide local, in-person support to Hope Moms. The Lord truly placed the desire on my heart to bring this ministry to central Texas and share the hope of Christ with hurting mothers. When I lost my ...