Your Faith Will Carry You
Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be studying the book of Habakkuk together. In this book, we gain insight into how God is at work on our behalf even when we can't always see it. Join us in the weeks ahead as we discover the God who is who carefully and lovingly crafted you, and lovingly created the gift of your child for which you now long. He has not carried you thus far simply to leave you on your own, but will be your Guide and your Strength.
Your Faith Will Carry You
"For still ...
Anticipating the First Birthday
Next week, it will be a year since our daughter, Ginny, was stillborn. Looking from the outside, it may seem that not much has changed since this time last year. We are living in the same house and driving the same roads. I was pregnant then, and I’m pregnant now. I was designing a nursery then, and I’m designing a nursery now. It’s the same room in a different color scheme. It sat empty this year. Most days, no one even entered through the door. Some days, I would enter and sit in the glider. I sat gliding with my empty arms and full but broken heart, staring ...
The First Pregnancy Announcement I Received After Loss
I’ve often compared my grief to an infant who needs full attention and love to survive. Friends often extend immense grace to us in our grief as they did in my case, but eventually, the attention naturally dwindles as our grief continues. It isn’t because our friends are bad friends who have forgotten about our pain. This world just keeps moving forward and sweeps us right along with it. Life goes on, and naturally other babies enter the story—babies who live and are healthy. This was one of the most difficult parts of my early grief process, but also one of the ...
Erin’s Story
On March 10, 2015, I gave birth to the most perfect baby girl, Addalyn Grace, weighing in at 4lbs 5oz and 18 inches long. Unfortunately, the doctors didn’t see how perfectly God formed her. They pointed out every “flaw” while all I saw was my beautiful girl. They sent us home on hospice when she was three days old with a diagnosis of Trisomy 18 and a prognosis of a month at the most.
Our first night at home was terrifying, to say the least. I didn’t know how it was going to happen—if she would die slowly or if we would wake up to her lifeless body. The ...
My First Quiet Time After Loss
Following the stillbirth of my first daughter, I looked to the Scriptures intently for answers about where she would spend eternity—later recording my findings in Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss. Then, as my husband and I planned our daughter’s memorial service, we looked to the Scriptures for words of the Lord’s peace and hope that would be featured on that day. In these earliest days of grief, my grandfather also wrote devotionals for my husband and me when loss was newest; these daily biblical words came to me spoon-fed—as the weak ...
Is God Still Good?
Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be studying the book of Habakkuk together. In this book, we gain insight into how God is at work on our behalf even when we can't always see it. Join us in the weeks ahead as we discover the God who is who carefully and lovingly crafted you, and lovingly created the gift of your child for which you now long. He has not carried you thus far simply to leave you on your own, but will be your Guide and your Strength.
Is God Still Good?
"You who are ...
Grieving Together: Spend Intentional Time With Your Spouse
Walking through the loss of a child is extremely difficult on its own, but the difficulty can be greatly compounded when walking through that grief with another. In this series, we seek to write about the ways we can encourage and support our spouse in grief, and come together before the Lord instead of being driven apart by sorrow.
It had been just over two weeks since our little one went to be with Jesus. I was still carrying his lifeless body inside of my own. My womb was just not ready to let go of the pregnancy, and I desperately wanted the opportunity to ...
