Hope Group Testimony {Stephanie’s Experience}

Everything happens in God’s time.
Everything happens for a reason.

These are two phrases I could not stand to hear shortly after I lost Isaiah on June 6 2015.

I found out about Hope Mommies when a friend of mine and I went searching for support groups or walks we could do in honor of our babies. I attended the 1^st Annual Hope Mommies 5k in Dallas in October 2015 with my friend and three other women I saw who were attending the walk alone. I learned about Hope Groups that day as well when I joined the Hope Mommies Facebook page. 

I have gone through the “Anchored” and “I Am” studies so far and will be registering for the “Identity” study in the coming weeks. These groups have helped me tremendously on my journey these past three years, and I am so grateful and blessed to be a part of it. 

I didn’t grow up in the faith, so, as you can imagine, I was full of anger and hate towards God. I felt like I had nowhere and no one to run to to help me deal with the loss of Isaiah. At first, I felt a little out of place during the “Anchored” Hope Group, but within a few weeks of the study I started to feel something tugging on my heart. I was more at ease when I talked about Isaiah. 

Knowing I could finally be understood and supported was just amazing.

Towards the end of the “Anchored” I had a dream that Isaiah reached down to pick me up off the floor and told me, “Mom, let God in your life.” God was tugging on my heart. I told my Hope Group leaders about it, and they invited me to attend a service at Irving Bible Church. From that moment on, I started going to church to help me understand the meaning of God and my purpose in life. 

I had a new view of my life, and understood what it meant that God turns your darkness into light. Everything started turning around for me. I was able to finally breathe again and wasn’t scared to open up about my story and Isaiah. This April, I attended an “I Am” Hope Group because I wanted to learn more about God’s character and who He is. I finally began to understand it all. 

Towards the end of the “I Am” study and after following and listening to influential Christians like, Priscilla Shirer and Steven Furtick, I decided to accept Christ as my Lord and Savior and got baptized on May 27 2018. I am so grateful and thankful for Hope Mommies. I was able to come out of a very dark place and started living my life the way God intended it to be. I have more growing to do of course, but every day I wake up giving thanks to God for blessing me and leading me down the right path. I cannot wait for the day when I will get to see Isaiah again and the immense happiness of having him in my arms. Because He lives, we have hope!