Hope for the Wait…

Between the promise and the fulfillment… hope is born.

Annalise is our rainbow baby. I knew from the moment we found out we were pregnant that if the child I was carrying was a girl that I wanted her middle name to be Hope. My desire to be blessed with a baby after losing Miranda was so strong, because I really needed to have hope here on earth.

When I accepted Christ’s gift of grace and mercy through salvation I received the hope of eternity.

I am heir to His promise.

When Miranda died I longingly looked forward to the fulfillment of the promise, when He would call us all home. The time when we are reunited with our daughter that went home to the Father before we ever had a chance to raise her. But the waiting for that time seems so long and unbearable at times. He has blessed me with five other children that we are busy raising, but the longing was still very present.

This weekend we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ; the sacrifice He made to make a way for us to Heaven. This weekend felt like a mirror of what my heart has felt, and so I wanted to share with you a portion of Annalise’s story.

On Good Friday we remember His death.

I imagine that those who followed Christ through His ministry entered into grief as they watched Him die. They knew the promise, they knew His words, they knew what scripture said, but now it was REAL, now was the test. They were morning, they were confused. Were they questioning what they once believed? What was it like for them to go home that evening?

How does the grief that I am familiar with even compare to what His disciples and mother felt?

And then there is Saturday, the day between the promise and the fulfillment.

Saturday is when hope is born.

We’ve been living in ‘Saturday’ from the moment of our acceptance of salvation, and I feel it even more now that my hunger for eternity is so great. I’m waiting for ‘Sunday’ but God says I need to live Saturday before I reach Sunday. In His mercy he has given me hope for the wait.

I knew that this pregnancy was not going to be easy (emotionally). Since there were no indications during Miranda’s pregnancy that things would go so wrong, I didn’t think I would have peace while pregnant no matter how many tests showed no concerns. There was a great amount of prayer that brought us all through Annalise’s pregnancy, our prayers and yours. Each one of us had so many worries before her arrival.

I wanted to chose her name as soon as we found out she was a girl, as a way to surrender the pregnancy to Him. That proved to be easier said than done. We considered lots of possibilities, but none were right. A week before her birth-day she still had no name. Vince started looking through names diligently so that we would not leave for the hospital ‘nameless’. When we read the meaning of ‘Annalise’ we knew it was her name.

Annalise Hope –

“Graced with God’s bounty” “belief, expectation of fulfillment”

This little girl He has chosen to bless us with is an amazing gift. There isn’t a single one of us in this house that doesn’t just look at her amazed and thankful. We now know just how precious life is and sadly just how short it could be.

Here we sit, on Easter Sunday. We rejoice that He is risen, the tomb is empty! By His resurrection we have assurance of eternal life. Promise, hope, and fulfillment.

Because of ‘Sunday’ we know that death is NOT the end of the story.

And so I continue to look forward with expectation that I will see my family reunited in glory and finally complete.

Sunday doesn’t make Friday any less painful, just as Annalise’s life doesn’t erase the loss of Miranda.

But the truth of the fulfillment feeds the hope for today and gives us the strength to wait for tomorrow.

I rejoice in Christ’s resurrection and for the gift of eternity it gives. May your families be blessed by His fullness and grace, today and everyday. May you carry the joy of salvation with you all days.

May you have a blessed Easter that is filled with hope!