Jen’s Story
I still remember when we announced we were pregnant. We were so excited and blessed to be pregnant with our third child on earth. This would be our fifth time being pregnant. In between our two living children, Addison and Austen, we had lost two babies in a row—10 weeks with the first and 5 weeks with the second. We had experienced losses, so we knew how blessed we were to be pregnant again. My whole pregnancy was going so well. I decided not to do the genetic testing, so instead we were scheduled for an ultrasound. I was 21 weeks. We were so nervous, but our nerves ...
October 15 Is This Sunday
In a letter to a dear friend, John Newton—who wrote Amazing Grace—expressed hope in Christ babies who go ahead of us: “I cannot be sorry for the death of infants. How many storms do they escape!” When we dwell upon the fullness of joy that our Hope Babies are experiencing right now in heaven with God—and while we miss them dearly every day—we cannot be sorry for them, can we? Nothing is better than to be with Christ; this glorious reality is beyond comprehension. What gratitude is stirred in my soul as I think about this gift!
Many ...
Q: Why Me? Why Do I Have to Go through This?
This Q&A series is intended to help you take steps forward in wisdom. Lay your questions before Scripture with us; find in the ashes that wisdom “will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown” (Prov. 4:9). What questions about grief, God, or the Bible do you have right now? Contact us here.
“It’s Not Fair!” cries the sister as her older sibling is allowed to do something that she cannot as yet do. Perhaps most of us can remember being that sibling who thought our parents were not ...
Testimony Tuesday {Amy’s Retreat Experience}
It’s not something you sign up for, or even a thing that passes through your mind when you make a commitment of faith to leave all and follow His plan for your life. When I moved to Bucharest, Romania to work as a missionary with orphan kids, I couldn’t have ever imagined where my life would take me. Would I have still come, If I knew?
I can still remember being led down a long white hall, the kind from communist times, which is no surprise since Romania has recently come out of all that. I was led into a hospital room that seemed darker than usual. I was left alone ...
Ending on Loss; Ending on Redemption
Each child gone ahead from among us is a precious person made in the image of God—and all having been made into Hope Moms, we together declare motherhood in each of our journeys. We are eager to go above and beyond in showing honor and love for one another (Rom. 12:10, 15). Through this series, we honor each other’s experiences of motherhood in love through our shared God of hope.
My eyes opened as the sun started to shine through the curtains in room 307. The room where just hours before I met and said goodbye to my only son, Chance Michael. The room ...
Sheri’s Story
My husband, Ron, and I have been married for 14 years. We first met in 2003, and we knew instantly that God had brought us together. We were married four months later. We had discussed children and always said it was in God’s hands if or when we had any. When Ron was 18 he had a brain tumor. He had surgery, chemo and radiation—and is completely healed. Because of the chemo and radiation, he was told that chances were pretty high that he wouldn’t be able to have children.
Fast forward eight years, and I wasn’t surprised that we hadn’t conceived yet. We just ...
Secured {Hope Mommies 2018 Retreat Theme}
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”
Psalm 91:1-4 NIV
This psalm of protection is where the theme for the upcoming Hope Mommies Retreat comes from. Secured. We would love to have you join us March 9-11, 2018 as we look ...
Tears and Talk {Part 2}
Last week, we shared the first post in this two-part series, “Tears and Talk,” by Pastor Colin Smith. Read the first post {here}.
Talk: Don’t Hold It Back!
The entire book of Lamentations is an expression of grief. It puts grief into words. Lamentations is a sustained outpouring of grief in which painful details of all that has happened, and all that was lost are poured over again and again. That is what grief does. That is what grief is like.
Leslie Allen quotes the words of Shakespeare in Macbeth,
Give sorrow words: The grief that does not speak,
Whispers ...
Tears and Talk {Part 1}
J. I. Packer says, “Grief is the inward desolation that follows the losing of something or someone we loved – a child, a relative, an actual or anticipated life partner, a pet, a job, one’s home, one’s hopes, one’s health or whatever.”[1] The key words here of course are ‘love’ and ‘loss.’ Grief is the process of adapting to the loss of something or someone that we loved.
When a person loses a loved one, we speak of them being bereaved. The word ‘reaved’ means to rob, plunder, or tear away. So the one who is ...
One Month until October 15
We are one month away from October 15, the day set aside for National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. It’s a day to remember, to come together, and to hope in the Word.
I filled some of the first weeks after my daughter went to heaven with hours upon hours of scouring the internet in the hope of finding someone, anyone, who was feeling the same things as me. I resonated with messages about the depths of pain that comes when the little one you love is removed from this life. I read of others, like me, who were marking time based upon the number of days ...
