.png)
One of the lowest points in my life was my six year struggle with infertility. Motherhood has always fascinated me. I was filled with hope when I got married at age 23, and I envisioned a baby arriving around age 28. Year after year came and went with no baby. My hope began to waver and after the five year mark with no answers to our struggle, it seemed hopeless. I remember reading a quote that says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” My heart was sick.
The great American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, grew up in Maine near the Portland harbor. He spent a significant amount of time at the beach, wading and watching the tides. At high tide the water rises very high, and at low tide the water draws way back. Low tide seems to last forever, and then almost unnoticeably, the tide turns around and the water comes back in.
He wrote:
“The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.”
How many times when you have reached the lowest point, in the darkest place, has there been divine intervention encouraging you to wait just a few more days, or just a little while longer; give it one more chance? How often, when you hold onto that voice, has something good happened? Something inside us says, “Don’t give up, keep going.” And we do. We hang on to that tiny thread of hope and the hope lifts us up.
Jerome Groopmans, author of “The Anatomy of Hope,” says:
“Hope has wings.”
This life lesson has revisited me several times since the birth of my quadruplets, which was one year after my lowest ebb. I held on and did not give up on my “mama” vision that was placed in me at a very young age. My four children are my miracles of hope. The "voice" of hope carried me through numerous life transitions; the empty nest, new job titles, moving to my own home, a remarriage to an incredible man and now my position as Executive Director. When the ebb was low, I remembered my first powerful experience of the turn of the tide.
This low ebb is what our CC4C moms face on a regular basis. They face each week with multiple appointments, questions to research, a “to do” list that never ends and needs and wants of their rare child and the sibling of the rare child that consumes them physically, emotionally and mentally. They, themselves, are often forgotten on the caretaking list.
Their hearts can get sick just like mine did. And they ask the question:
“When will the tide turn?”
"Where will my hope come from?”
The ebb is low.
The tide turns with a special invitation to a night called “TRIBE 4 Moms”. Please join the CC4C TRIBE 4 Moms for dinner at a fun restaurant, have time to just talk with other CC4C moms, share resources and have space to just “be”.
Making the choice to say yes to this one event ushered in a ray of hope, followed by an uplifted feeling all the way home after the TRIBE evening. The ebb of truth came: “I’m not alone. Yes, this is very hard and I am tired, but I have a community of support and I can take one more step.”
The TRIBE 4 Moms is a continual source of power each month that can begin to turn the tide. Little by little, event by event, talk after talk, fun activity after fun activity, a strong resilience builds and our moms find themselves with a new strength, resilience and most of all HOPE.
I know without a doubt; hope does have wings. Those wings empower us to rise up and soar, taking in the immense beauty of life and sharing it with others.
But those who hope in the Lord, will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31
Comments