Where Were You?
After my loss at 18 weeks, I found myself unable to listen to Christian music or hymns without bursting into tears, and my voice couldn’t find the strength to utter any of the words. It was just so hard to sing “it is well with my soul” when my soul hadn’t healed. As the entire church sang “Good Good Father” my harsh reality seemed in stark contrast to the joyous noise surrounding me. You bet I believed those words, but my wound was still so raw.
I knew God was good, even though I didn’t feel any bit good at the time. I hoped if I said, “God ...
Seeking the Lord in the Midst of the Valley
The nature of infant loss occurring in 1 out of 4 pregnancies, means that there are new women joining our community on a weekly basis. Over the next few weeks, we want to repost some of our earliest blog articles to encourage the dear mommas that have recently joined the ministry and community of Hope Mommies. Although these posts may have been written many years ago, the truths they contain remain the same. God is enough. He has always been enough. And as we place our hope in Him, we will find that He is our anchor in the midst of this storm of grief.
Pain. ...
Carly’s Story
My husband, Josh, and I found out we were pregnant shortly after Thanksgiving in 2019. To be quite honest, I was very anxious and fearful about it because this child would be my fourth C-Section, and we had experienced complications with our third son that could affect this pregnancy. I brought my fears before the Lord (at the time I was mostly fearful that I would die in childbirth, leaving my husband and children behind) and He comforted me greatly as I read in 1 Thessalonians 5: 9-11.“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord ...
The Good Shepherd Guides His Sheep
God’s Word is filled with rich promises for His children. How do these “precious and very great promises” inform and direct your grief? How does keeping your eyes fixed on these truths anchor your hope in the Lord? In this series, we write about how God, through the promises in His Word, comforts and strengthens us in our sorrow.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” John 10:11
The day before we found out our daughter, Lydia, had died, my husband and I were reading this passage in John 10. We spent some ...
It Is Well, Even When It Isn’t
I was pregnant for the fourth time in under three years. I’d had a chemical pregnancy, then I had my daughter, Lily, then I had a miscarriage. It was the day of my six-week appointment. I spent the morning daydreaming about being in that darkened ultrasound room, holding my husband’s hand, and seeing the rapid flutter of our healthy baby’s heartbeat on the sonographer’s screen.
Then there was blood. Not a lot, but not none.
I placed 18-month-old Lily in her highchair with her milk and lunch and began circling the kitchen island praying ...
Two Are Better Than One
Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be studying the book of Ecclesiastes together, which centers on the truth that life apart from Christ is empty and vain. In its pages, we discover how to view our lives with an eternal perspective, enabling us to press into the Lord regardless of our circumstances. In this series, we seek to explore the wise principles presented to us by "the Teacher" in order to better understand what it looks like to walk in the fear and joy of the Lord even in the midst of our ...
Finding Joy in the Sorrow
The year 2018 was a very hard year for my husband and me. We were pregnant with our sixth child. The pregnancy was filled with unknowns and anxiety, and at 34-weeks, our baby was born into the arms of Jesus. I knew that the road ahead would be the hardest one I had walked yet.
I spent eight weeks on maternity leave. Maternity leave is supposed to be a time for you to bond with your baby and heal physically. But my maternity leave was different. I think of it as my silent maternity leave. As some of you can relate, there’s nothing silent in a household with five ...
He Draws Near: Abigail’s Experience
“While He was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And He allowed no one to follow Him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when He had entered, He said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but ...
Danica’s Story
In the midst of my darkest valleys, our faithful God has shown me His grace in the most surreal ways that I have ever experienced.
As a young wife, I was so excited as I anticipated the moment when I would be blessed with a pregnancy. My husband and I prayerfully considered our readiness for parenthood and trusted that the Lord would provide a child in the near future. Shortly after beginning to mentally prepare for motherhood, our first baby came into our lives. I became pregnant with our baby in April, 2019 and carried her for eight months on this earth. I ...
Warrior
Warrior (noun)1. a person engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier.2. a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage
The other day my husband took me by the shoulders, after I was having a hard day and said to me, “Melissa, you are a warrior.” This of course brought more tears to my eyes.
In motherhood, this is true, we are warriors. We have war wounds on our bodies and in our souls. We wage war against the lies that the enemy brings as we grieve for our children that are with Jesus and as we raise the ones that are still here on earth with us.
We put on ...
