Nicole’s Story
My husband and I were married in our late 20s, always knowing that we both wanted a family. It was only about six months before we decided that we would like to start a family. We were blessed with a baby girl in 2011 and a baby boy in 2013. Having babies seemed so easy. We had no complications with either pregnancy and felt so fortunate to have these two healthy children.
We both come from families with three children and felt strongly that our family was not complete. In 2015 we started trying for our third and assumed it would come easily as it had before. However, ...
Pray For One Another: Her Story
"Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble.
But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and
not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference."
- Max Lucado
I’ve always thought of my husband as having a heart of gold. He is my best friend, my soulmate, and the one who always seems to make things right. I could listen to him read Scripture and encouraging words all day if I could. My sweet man has a way with words and I am loved so well by him.
When we fell in love and knew we wanted to get married, we both agreed that premarital ...
Pray For One Another: His Story
It's been said before, you really can't understand somebody's pain until you walk through it yourself.
As men, we are wired to try to fix things. However, the loss of our son was something I could not fix. I remember standing in the delivery room and looking at Nelly as the nurse said, "Your water broke." I called for the doctor. My mind kept racing. "No God! No God! This is not what we had planned! Corbin is not going to make it! It's too early for him!”
With all of our family in the waiting area, we welcomed Corbin into this world on March 27, 2014 at 5:38pm. Our ...
A Prayer For The One Who Mourns
On this day set aside to remember the lives of our babies who have gone home ahead of us, my heart is aching alongside yours. I wish that October 15 did not hold this remembrance of sorrow for you. But it is my prayer that in the midst of your grief today, you will also see the unfading beauty of the hope of Christ pierce through the darkness.
A Prayer For The One Who Mourns
O Lord
You know the ache of my heart.
You see my suffering and draw near.
As I drink from this stream of sorrow, I turn to You.
What began as joyful anticipation has crumbled into an unsung ...
The Comfort of God’s Counsel
I remember that night like it was yesterday. I was seven months pregnant with our second boy and we had been praying constantly for a miracle. Each appointment provided further evidence supporting his diagnosis, but we continued to pray for God to intervene. That night began like so many nights before. I prayed once again for God to spare my son’s life and drifted off to sleep.
This night, however, I had a vivid dream about Thatcher and his death. I awoke sweating and screaming, one of those guttural screams that only comes with deep anguish. In that moment I heard ...
I Will Not Be Shaken
I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand,
I shall not be shaken.
-Psalm 16:8
I have set the Lord always before me. That sounds kind of churchy and odd, doesn’t it? Who talks like that? I think David was saying, “I’m keeping my focus on the Lord. I’m putting Him first and looking to Him in all things.”
We all have things in our lives that bring us to what I call the faith barrier. It’s what makes us question if God is there, if He cares about us, if He loves us, and if He really is a good, good Father. We wonder how God could ...
Katie’s Story
It had been nearly a year since our early miscarriage and we yearned for a sibling here for our almost 3-year-old son. I had recently finished reading a book on prayer which inspired me to keep a prayer journal and be more intentional in seeking quiet time with the Lord.
I began to recognize that my fervent desire (bordering on obsession) to expand our family had become an idol to me. A verse that I continued to meditate on during that time says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). These words sank deep as I ...
Love One Another: Her Story
I watched from the window as he helped our oldest daughter hang a hand-painted sign on our backyard fence. It said: “We Love You, Chase.” This sign was my daughter’s decoration for our son’s “celebration of life.” Our baby’s funeral was something I never dreamed we would host in our backyard that autumn of 2009.
Our lawn was perfectly manicured and had been transformed with a rainbow of color displayed in planted flowers, balloons and painted decorations. My sweet husband had made this happen, after listening to me cry and brainstorm and wonder about ...
Love One Another: His Story
It was a typical weekend filled with family activities in late September 2009. Chelsea was 36 weeks pregnant with Chase and we were both trying to keep up with his three big sisters—Kendyll (7), Carlie (5) and Abby Kate (2.5). The long hot Texas summer was nearly behind us. We were in the homestretch of this fourth pregnancy, and simply ready for this new era as a family of six to begin. We completed all of the typical "night before church” routines—baths, hair-drying, and story time, and announced to the girls that we were going to see a live Broadway style perfor...
Faith in the Unseen
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!
“Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen Me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet ...
