I Have This Hope...

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

Surely my soul remembers

And is bowed down within me.

This I recall to my mind,Therefore I have hope.

The LORD’S loving kindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:19-23

Evangeline's 15 month well check was yesterday. It's kind of neat that it fell on that particular day because it is the day, exactly two years ago, that I got the shock of my life in finding out I was expecting her.  My husband and our, then, pastor had just resigned from our church two days prior because of some really ugly things happening within the leadership of the church, and he had just come home from packing up his office when I shared the news with him. I'll never forget the look on his face. Having struggled so much to expand our family for so many years, we found ourselves in awe of this miracle, and yet completely overwhelmed at the timing of it all. And that is how our sweet Evangeline came to first be known to us as "Baby H," because we knew that God was reminding us of the hope that we have in Him, no matter what the circumstances surrounding us may be.

Yesterday at her appointment, Evangeline ran straight to the doctor when she entered the room and hugged her leg and wanted her to pick her up, and waved and said "bye bye" and blew kisses when she left. After her appointment, she was running up to random people in the waiting room with her arms stretched up, motioning for them to pick her up, and striking up sweet little "conversations" with them. She's definitely a people person, athough every few moments she would run back up to me, as if to check in and make sure everything was okay;-)

She remains our tiniest of T's, weighing only 21.7 pounds (50th percentile) and measuring 29 and 3/4 inches tall (13th percentile.) Don't be fooled by her tiny appearance though, because she's got big plans every day, and I pray she will discover the amazing plan her Heavenly Daddy has for her. She brought hope into our lives during a very dark time, and I pray she continues to eagerly reach her arms out to others to give them the hope I pray she finds in Jesus Christ!

As I was writing this blog post out, I kept finding myself humming "I Have This Hope" by Tenth Avenue North. 

I have this hope
In the depth of my soul
In the flood or the fire
You're with me and You won't let go

What a blessing it is to be Evangeline's mommy! I cannot imagine our lives without this ray of sunshine who daily reflects her name by being a reminder to me of the Good News we can find in Jesus Christ, no matter what the circumstances are surrounding us.