Introducing Hope

 This girl deserves her very own blog post! By far, she is my favorite girl in all of the world! I must say, she was the hardest to name! But I still recall how right it felt, the night, two weeks before her birth, that Ryan presented, "How about the name Hope? "
 So how about the name Hope? At the time of her birth, I found a definition of hope that meant to 'wait expectantly with anticipation'. Again, just as with the other boys we did not and could not fully understand why this name may have been so significant. And so then she was born. And we took Hope home on Christmas Eve day. Do you remember how in Luke 2, Mary " pondered all of these ghings in her heart"? Jesus was born as a hope for our worn, weary world. Hope was born to this worn and wearied woman who chased after two tireless toddlers at the time!  She truly was a breath of fresh air to me. Her saucer -like blue eyes would gaze up at me in the dark of the night. Peace would saturate my soul like the dawning of a new day. And there she grew, bewildering the hearts of two young boys. They appeared to be enamored by this she-thing dressed in pink!
Together, Ryan and I moved our three kids to Parkersburg shortly after her arrival. Then when hope reached the age of five months, a tornado touched down and wreaked havoc in our town and lives.  What happened then is forever imprinted on my heart. Ashes to beauty, says Isaiah. My little girl, new to town,  went everywhere I went. We traipsed through broken down houses and hearts, but upon meeting us for the first time and hearing, "her name is Hope,", before my eyes I visibly saw despair empty itself. Hope restored what was lost in brick and stick and soul.  Never will I forget the faces that brought my family hope or how Hope, my daughter, did the same for so many other tattered individials displaced, just by speaking her name.
 But that's not the only reason her name is so suitable. She is no longer that wide-eyed baby girl. Almost 9 years have passed since that May Day imprinted in my yesterdays. Hopesy Daisy, big sister to two more boys, still is our Hope, smack dab in the middle of our full life!  She is my giggly girl, my girl. My one and only, one of a kind hope. The only one who is daring enough to spend three hours in Once Upon A Child with me,  she brings me a reprieve from testosterone! Hope is full of emotion,  and one tough cookie! You will not see her sitting on the sidelines when her brothers go out to play football in the backyard. With all that boyness that surrounds her, how did she become so thoughtful, so loving, so selfless?  Her and I have some of the best talks. She's the first one I did a gratitude journal with, and there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not thankful for her. She is a soul-searching, sweetheart of a girl, loved by her daddy. He calls her Fancy Face and sways to the song "Cinderella" (Steven Curtis Chapman)with her every year on her birthday. Those four boys won't readily admit it but, aside from lovin' their mama, she holds a big place in their hearts as well!  So Hope, my daughter, and that expectant anticipation of what is to come, is truly what keeps us all going! Hope does not disappoint. No matter what becomes of that girl, I deeply believe she will never stray too far from the heart of God! It is in Him, and in His Hands, I place my Hope!