“Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most. You need to remember that when you find yourself at a beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up.”
– Hope Floats
This past fall when I first announced plans to host an event with my family, I heard from many of you from all over the country expressing interest in coming. We wanted to keep the gathering small and somewhat intimate to allow for conversation and connection so we limited the number of tickets.
As it turns out, those tickets sold out on the first day with many others putting their name on a waiting list. Beyond that, I know many of you wanted to come but couldn’t manage a trip all the way here to North Carolina.
One week after our barn event, our family gathered together for Thanksgiving. As we talked over turkey and pie, I realized planning and hosting that event for you with my family was one of the most fun and meaningful afternoons I had had in a long time.
I wanted to do it again. And again.
And we plan to. But we just don’t have a barn ready yet.
Still, our desire to do something together — Myquillyn and Chad, Mom and Dad, Me and John — is strong.
We want to figure out a way to offer hope-filled encouragement for anyone, not just those who can travel to an event. We want to figure out a way to share our own journey of finding grace, embracing imperfection, and holding on to hope as a family in the middle parts of life (and the endings and beginnings, too).
We want to figure out a way to offer what we hold in our collective hands and see if the offering might be a daily grace for someone else – maybe for you.
Because of those desires, ever since our first barn event in November, we’ve been dreaming and planning and preparing something together to offer to you. It’s unlike anything any of us have ever done. And today is the day we finally invite you to join us in it – right where you are.
(!!!!)
Dad, Myquillyn and I are all different in the ways we communicate and the things we write about. But the one place all of our passions point is toward hope.
Dad writes about family – grace and forgiveness and what it means to embrace the family you have right now even if it’s not the family you always thought would be.
Myquillyn writes about home – acceptance and imperfection and what it means to love the home you’re in right now even if it’s not the home you always dreamed of.
I write about the soul – courage and faith and what it means to walk with Jesus as the person I am right now rather than the person I wish I were instead.
While we’ll continue to write about these things on our individual blogs for free, we’ve created Hope*ologie so that we can move beyond the blog post to partner with you as we intentionally turn toward hope in the simple places where we are right now – in our homes, our families, our own souls.
We’ll have podcasts (with my sister!), videos (for DIYs and interviews!) printables (to make your own Hope*book!) a monthly hand-lettered print from one of our favorite artists, Annie Barnett, (I can’t stop with the !!) and much more.
We haven’t talked about it online at all and are admittedly sneaking in the back door of the internet with this one, whispering an invitation to any hopers who may feel alone or in need of renewal in your family, your home, or in the quietness of your own soul.
The best part? The first month is available right now for anyone who chooses to join Hope*ologie – including a lifetime discount for joining the first month. To read all about what you’ll receive as a member of Hope*ologie, visit hopeolgie.com and join us for hope in the middle.
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