What does HoPE look like?

What does HoPE look like?
By: Kelli Aardal Goin

Have you ever sat and thought about how important HoPE is in our lives?
While it is possible to live without a lot of things, it is impossible to live without HoPE.

It wasn’t until Abbey was diagnosed with Holoprosencephaly that I truly understood that concept too. I’ll never forget that day when the doctor came into Abbey’s hospital room and told us he was there to take our HoPE away and whatever dreams we had for our daughter and her future would never come true. He said she would never walk, talk or do the things that other kids do.

I was in shock…who was he to take our HoPE away!!! He wasn’t God and he couldn’t see the future God had mapped out for Abbey. I told him that we would shoot for the moon and if we landed among the stars that was okay too. She was our daughter and had been prayed for since before she was born, so I was going to give her every chance to succeed and trust in God to help us accept and nourish the person He wants her to become. With that statement her doctor said to go out and prove him wrong.

It was in this moment that I found out what HoPE truly is, through the life of my Baby Girl. HoPE became my focus, as I began a journey that has grown my faith and allowed me to see God’s hand at work in the life of a baby girl, who the doctors were so eager to give up on…my baby girl Miss Abbey Grace!!! She has grown us stronger as a family, brought us more JOY than we could have imagined, allowed us to witness God at work and given us new meaning to the word HoPE.

So remember that every storm this life throws at us shall pass in time and look for what HoPE looks like to you. So, that in our times of despair you can still find your HoPE!!!

What does HoPE look like? For me it looks like the face of a little girl,  who serves as a reminder that God has bigger plans for our life even when others are ready to give up on us!!!