6 results for tag: Kristin

Kristin’s Story

After three years of tearful prayers and longing, my husband and I were ecstatic when we learned we were expecting our first child. This baby, a little boy we named Ethan, was a long-awaited answer to many prayers and we praised God for this precious gift. “God is so faithful,” we heard again and again, as we shared the news with the countless friends and family who had been praying for us over the years. God’s faithfulness felt so evident in our lives and our hearts overflowed with gratitude.  At our 20-week anatomy scan, we learned that Ethan displayed a variety of concerning markers. We were later told our sweet baby boy had Full ...

Wrestling Well

I first started walking with Jesus as a young child, and my faith has been and still is the most important part of my life. I know this all sounds so “nice,” and it certainly is, but it’s fair and even helpful to share that walking with Jesus hasn’t always been easy for me. In fact, walking with Jesus has been very difficult through the years. I’ve wrestled and doubted, as I would imagine many of you have too. I’ve noticed there seems to be a temptation to wrestle secretly because we feel ashamed––we worry others will think we’re losing our faith or that they’ll say something unhelpful and fuel the fire of our questioning, ...

Kristin’s Story

On July 20, 2018, our third child was due to join our family. Her room was pink, her brothers were excited, her Dad and I were ecstatic for a girl. It felt so different this time. We had all the ideas of bows and frilly things, and had decided exactly what her wedding day would be like.  Our firstborn came at 31 weeks after a quick and scary bout with preeclampsia, so this pregnancy they watched my blood pressure carefully. On July 6th, I was 38 weeks, and that afternoon I got a high blood pressure reading on my cuff at home. I called the nurse and she asked me to come to the hospital. However, in the hospital that day, my blood pressure ...

This Is A Mother

There is a verse in Genesis that talks about pain in childbirth. The NIV version states, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.” And the King James version, “Unto the woman he said, ‘I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children’” (Genesis 3:16). Perhaps, like me, you believe this verse refers to the painful process of giving birth. But, ask any mother, there is so much more pain to childbirth, childbearing, and child-raising, then only the pains of labor. I think of the pain of a c-section, the baby surgically ...

God Weeps With Us

As with most things in life, parenting is a balancing act. Some call it picking your battles—and those battles, in the world of parenting, often revolve around how much candy I will let my son eat and how many crocodile tear whimpers I can tolerate after three days of no napping. This ...

Kristin’s Retreat Experience

A few months after Abby died, I received a Hope Box in the mail. It was my first introduction to Hope Mommies. I was intrigued. Their annual retreat was something that caught my eye, and soon enough, I had convinced another Hope Mom to go to this retreat with me in Texas. It all sounded like a great idea at the time, but as the weekend of the retreat drew near, it sounded like a terrible, anxiety-ridden, I-think-I’m-gonna-pass-out kind of idea. I mean, lots of talking with people I don’t know? PANIC. Bunking with roommates? NOPE. Before Abby died, I would have loved a weekend away, but now my anxiety made it difficult to venture far from ...