Light Gives Hope 2020

It is time again for our annual fundraiser, “Light Gives Hope”. Many of you have supported this campaign, year after year, and we are grateful for you. This year marks our 8th fundraiser, however, our 2019 campaign never happened, as we were met with a challenge that we didn't expect (story below)…

Giving Hope to NICU Families During the Holidays

Last year on Thanksgiving, we were in the NICU with our new baby son, Ira. It was beautiful and snowy outside, but Ira was in the NICU and Ester was at home. It was a day in which we had to be intentionally thankful, because gratitude isn’t where we easily landed.

Our challenging experience last Thanksgiving season is what prompted our focus for this year’s “Light Gives Hope” campaign. Through the sale of our handcrafted ornaments, we will be curating beautiful gift baskets, filled with several handmade items that will be both practical and comforting for NICU families. The baskets will be delivered around Christmas time to NICU's in the Texoma / North Texas area.

If you’d like to give hope with us this year, you can purchase these handcrafted “Hope House” ornaments. They symbolize the hope that parents cling to, while waiting to bring their babies home.

Gift Basket Items: Handmade Flannel Blanket (to keep warm), Locally designed Coffee Mug, Artisan Chocolates, Handmade Notepad (for all those questions during rounds), Journal and Pens, Handmade Beeswax Lotion Bars (the amount of hand washing dries out the hands quickly), Organic Goodies, and more…

The Story:

Last year on November 13th our son Ira James was born, almost eight weeks early (33 1/2 weeks along). 

Around 3:00 AM on the morning of the 13th, I awoke knowing that my body was in labor. In a bit of shock, we packed a few items, woke up Ester, and headed to the hospital. Ira was supposed to be born at home, after Christmas, but these “plans” had changed, and he arrived by 1:00 PM that same day.

Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

In recent years we had a few experiences that built our faith and prepared our hearts for this day. God prepares us without our realization, it’s not a conscious preparation, however, it’s a deep soul preparation. We just had a baby that would spend an unknown amount of time in a hospital NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). For most people, this is a foreign place, about 90% of babies never see the NICU.  

Back in 2015, our little Ester Elizabeth was born a whole month early, but she didn’t require any time in the NICU. She would be our first preemie experience. And many of you probably remember that our 2018 Light Gives Hope campaign was focused on our nephew, Oliver. He was also born at 33 1/2 weeks. It’s beautiful how the few moments in which we were able to visit Oliver helped prepare our hearts for Ira’s birth and hospitalization, just a year later.

Yes, the cords, beeps and tubes are alarming at first, but the unknown is far worse. Not knowing when you get to bring your baby home, that’s the hardest part. 

Hospital staff have to be very conservative about what they tell parents, it’s a fine line between offering hope and being realistic. It’s hard to maintain hope when you’re in a sea of post birth hormones, your body is physically healing, and you are faced with the pressure of pumping milk around the clock. The hope thins out when the fear that you may not ever get to nurse your baby (because they’re on a feeding tube) grows. And then the hope seems to all but vanish with each goodbye; goodbye to your tiny baby in a plastic box, goodbye to your little children at home who are wondering what is going on, and goodbye to your spouse whom you don’t see because you flip flop your time at the NICU. The NICU is a miraculous place where the tiniest babies are able to continue their growth out of womb, but they can also be terribly lonely. Perhaps you know someone that is weathering life in a NICU right now, perhaps you’ve been there yourself? It is our great pleasure to bring some light to a handful of NICU families this Christmas season.

Baby Ira James - Born 11/13/19