Two Hopes Collide
Late last year a rather unassuming red-headed young lady attended HOPE, the Christian Infertility Support Group at Lakewood Church. She was rather quiet at first, yet it didn’t surprise me, most of the gals attending for the first time are. After our meeting I worked my way over to chat with her. I mentioned my upcoming trip to New York City, photography, blog, writing…and then she came ALIVE!
Have you ever heard the expression “Two worlds collide”? The saying refers to two different people with two differing points of view.
Yet what happens when two women, a design blog, a distance of 2400 miles, a time of 10 minutes and infertility clash?
Two Hopes Collide
The collision has brought a new contributing author to Dancing Upon Barren Land, may I introduce to you:
Hannah happened upon Dancing Upon Barren Land by clicking my sponsor button on Jones Design Company website in Seattle, Washington, 2400 miles away. Come to find out, we live 10 minutes apart from one another in neighboring towns. Our proximity led us to the local Dunn’s coffee shop. Ah! Coffee! the one-stop shop; fuel for the writer and flint to kindle a friendship.
I came to realize my first assumption of her was little off. She was not reserve and unassuming, but rather a deep thinker, with a driving force to create! She’s a woman who is determined! Focused in using her God-given talents of humor, crafting, writing, photography and blogging, just to name a few.
As our conversations deepened, the points of reference of our infertility paths were recalled. Surprisingly similar in medical diagnoses, doctors, surgeries and the pain and grief associated with infertility. We were like two kindred souls, revisiting the pit stops along the barren highway and might I add, deep “pits.”
After leading a Christian infertility support group for the last five years and having this website for the last three I realize no two infertility journey’s are alike. Truly two worlds do actually collide! As Hannah and I began to get to know one another I realized we were in two different seasons, our age and phases of infertility and the ebb and flow of the psychological reactions associated with it.
For fun, we thought to create a table showing similarities and differences over between personality and fertility journey’s. Heck! I’m old enough to be her mother!
Obviously you can tell from our table the contrast between us yet there remains a commonality; our love for Jesus Christ and desire to reach others who are hurting through infertility. I like how Hannah states it on her blog series, Waiting for Grace.
- As a venue to share the struggles we have been through so in case someone else is going through the same thing to let them know they aren’t alone. We want to offer comfort and support with couples struggling with infertility.
- To bring awareness of the issues to those who would have never thought about it otherwise.
- To share our testimony. Yep, this is our testimony. Even though we don’t have a little one yet, we still believe that God is faithful and if sharing our story brings someone to Christ, then putting our pain and reservations aside while sharing our struggles…that makes it all worth it. It’s not just about having faith while struggling with infertility; it’s about trying to keep the faith while struggling through any issue in your life – big and small. If you’re going through something in your life right now, we want to encourage you to stay strong and believe that your victory is coming.
Two gals on the barren road, Hannah hopping around because the tender rocks hurt her feet, and me with feet tough as leather due to traveling many miles upon the barren road. With two hopes colliding, I’m hoping to bring openness and freshness to the website. Prayerfully we desire to bring hope, love and healing in infertility through Jesus Christ.
From time to time you’ll see Hannah contributing on Dancing Upon Barren Land through her blog posts on Waiting for Grace.
Will you welcome Hannah? Give a shout out in the comments!