21 Days of Hope

"From there I will give back her vineyards to her, and turn the "Valley of Trouble" into an "Opportunity for Hope." There she will sing as she did when she was young, when she came up from the land of Egypt. "

                                                Hosea 2:15 NET

          In May of 2018 our beautiful Josephine was born. She is the last of our kiddos and the final baby born to us after God had promised “restitution” in early 2014. I had a condition called cholestasis that put her at high risk for stillbirth if we waited to deliver at 40 weeks. The decision was made to induce at 36 weeks after two rounds of steroid shots to help her lungs. Shortly after she was born she was whisked away to the NICU. While I was in the NICU with Jojo (I got to room-in with her) I dreamt that I was standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking a desert valley. I watched as a giant dark whirlwind/tornado made its way across the desert valley toward me. I wasn’t afraid; I only felt peace. When the whirlwind got to me giant hands came out of it and handed me a baby wrapped in a pink blanket. I knew exactly what it meant - While I was in labor, days before, I was praying and asked God what he was up to. He replied “Valley of Achor.” I quickly grabbed my Bible (yes I brought my Bible to the hospital) and found Hosea 2:15:

 “There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor (Trouble) a door of hope. There she will sing as she did when she was young…”

          This hospital (the same place I birthed two girls I did not get to bring home) was transformed into a doorway of hope. The very place I had experienced so much trouble became the very place God gave me back my “vineyards” so-to-speak. A few days after I had the dream a friend sent a pink blanket up to the hospital saying she was strongly impressed by the Lord to stop and buy a pink blanket to send to us while we were in the hospital.

God is so good like that -Transforming desert wastelands into oases, places of trouble into places filled with hope, places of pain into the places of our greatest growth. If I could encourage you today, I would say, give God more time. He’s doing transformational work and he’s not finished yet. In some ways he’s just getting started. I don’t want you to give up before you get to the good part.